Why will Amazon close at the end of 2022?

 Amazon is to stop operating its Amazon Care service three years after it started a trial program for a primary care service for its employees that combined telehealth and in-person medical treatments.

Amazon declared on Wednesday that its Amazon Care business would cease on December 31. Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, claimed in an email to his staff that Amazon Care wasn't a viable, long-term solution for its commercial customers.

Amazon gave Fierce Healthcare a copy of the email.

The move does not affect Amazon's other healthcare services; rather, it only affects the Care and Care Medical teams.

According to Lindsay's email to staff, while running Amazon Care, the business "gathered and listened to considerable input" from its enterprise customers and their employees and changed the program to consistently enhance the user experience of consumers.

Nevertheless, Lindsay added, "despite these efforts, we've decided that Amazon Care isn't the best long-term solution for our enterprise customers, and we will no longer be offering Amazon Care beyond December 31, 2022.

"This choice was not taken lightly; rather, it was decided only after careful thought and consideration. Although many of Amazon Care's features have been commended by our registered members, it is not a complete enough solution for the huge enterprise clients we have been looking for and wasn't going to last in the long term "said he.

One of the company's main initiatives to increase its presence in the healthcare sector was Amazon Care. In 2019, the online retailer tested out virtual primary and urgent care services with Amazon staff members and their families in the Seattle area.

Since then, Amazon Care has rapidly grown, offering telemedicine services in all 50 states and in-person services in at least seven cities, including Baltimore, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. Amazon then concentrated on expanding partnerships with employers as part of its ambitions in healthcare and added additional businesses as clients, including Silicon Labs, TrueBlue, Whole Foods Market, Precor—a manufacturer of fitness equipment with headquarters in Washington that was acquired by Peloton—and Hilton.

According to some business experts, Amazon Care found it difficult to establish itself with employer clients.

Major metropolises including San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, and New York City were among the 20 other locations that the corporation planned to quickly introduce its hybrid care model to in 2022.

The CEO, Andy Jassy, has prioritized healthcare, and in his inaugural letter to shareholders earlier this year, he used Amazon Care as an illustration of "iterative innovation." The company revealed plans to acquire One Medical, a concierge primary care provider, in July in a deal estimated to be worth $3.9 billion.

If the One Medical transaction is approved, Amazon's presence in the approximately $4 trillion healthcare sector, particularly in the cutthroat primary care market, would be greatly increased.

One Medical positions itself as a primary care platform that is consumer-focused, membership-based, and technologically integrated. The business has 188 offices spread throughout 29 markets. One Medical had 767,000 members as of March 31.

Given that One Medical partners with 8,000 businesses, the agreement also grants Amazon quick access to the valuable employer sector.

The purchase of One Medical has not yet been finalized.

According to Lindsay, the firm has improved its understanding of "what's needed long-term to create significant health care solutions for enterprise and individual clients" as a result of its work developing Amazon Care.

"My opinion is that the healthcare industry is ready for a revolution, and our efforts to enhance the patient experience can greatly improve our quality of life and health results. None of these considerations, however, ease this choice for the teams that helped establish Amazon Care or for the clients our Care team serves "He composed.

The decision to stop Amazon Care's operations may result in some layoffs. According to Lindsay's email to colleagues, many Amazon Care employees will have the opportunity to join other divisions of the Health Services department or other teams at Amazon. He added that we'll also support employees looking for jobs outside the company.