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Amazon is shutting down its telehealth service Amazon Care, according to an internal memo, which marks a surprise shift in its recent expansion into the health sector.
Amazon Care launched in 2019 at its Seattle headquarters, first as a pilot program before extending nationwide, but it will cease to exist as of December 31 according to a company email sent by Amazon Health Services lead Neil Lindsay.
The service is a hybrid model of virtual, in-home primary and urgent care services without physical locations. Earlier this month, it was reportedly teaming up with mental health company Ginger to provide behavioral health support.
Lindsay wrote that it wasn’t “the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers.”
“This decision wasn’t made lightly and only became clear after many months of careful consideration.
“Although our enrolled members have loved many aspects of Amazon Care, it is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting and wasn’t going to work long-term,” Lindsay said.
In February, Amazon Care said that they had several companies using the service, among them being Silicon Labs, True Blue and Whole Foods. They also said they had a patient satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of 5.
Amazon’s foray into healthcare
The move comes despite an even wider foray by Amazon into the healthcare industry.
Amazon acquired prescription-by-mail company PillPack for $753 million in 2018, it launched Amazon Pharmacy service in 2020, and in July this year it acquired One Medical for $3.9 billion.
Even more recently, Amazon has reportedly been bidding for home health services provider Signify health.
The move is a potential indicator that telehealth is not as lucrative as predicted, with a recent analysis by Trilliant Health showing that demand for such services declined nearly 60% from April 2020 to April 2022.
However, there is no indication that Amazon is pulling back its other healthcare initiatives.
Amazon did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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