Currently available to the company's employees in Washington
state, Amazon Care is an app that connects users virtually with doctors, nurse
practitioners and nurses who can provide services and treatment over the phone
24 hours a day. In the Seattle area, it's supplemented with in-person services
such as pharmacy delivery and house-call services from nurses who can take
blood work and provide similar services.
On Wednesday, the tech giant announced it will immediately
expand the service to interested employers in Washington who want to purchase
the service for their employees. By the summer, Amazon Care will expand
nationally to all Amazon workers, and to private employers across the country
who want to join.
In the Baltimore, Washington, DC, and northern Virginia
market, where Amazon is building a second headquarters that will house more
than 25,000 workers, Amazon Care will include the in-person services that are
currently limited to Seattle.
“Making this available to other employers is a big step,”
said Amazon Care Director Kristen Helton in a phone interview. “It's an
opportunity for other forward-thinking employers to offer a service that helps
bring high-quality care, convenience and peace of mind.”
Amazon launched the service 18 months ago for its Washington
state employees. Helton said users have given it superior reviews, and business
customers were inquiring about being able to buy into the service for their own
workers.
Helton said the product is designed to be a supplement or an
additional benefit to existing coverage provided by an employer.
Consumer demand for telemedicine and virtual health care has
exploded during the pandemic. Stephen Morgan, a medical professor at Virginia
Tech and chief medical information officer at the Carilion Clinic in southwest
Virginia, said virtual visits increased there from about 100 a month before the
pandemic to about 800 a day within a two-week span.
He said research has shown that telemedicine can provide
quality on par with traditional in-person care, all while making services
available to people who otherwise might not be able to get them or would have
to travel great distances to do so.
But he said it's critical that providers build in checks and
balances to ensure that quality does not suffer.
“It is a concern that anyone who wants to do telemedicine,
Amazon included, puts those checks and balances in place,” he said.
Helton said that when users log in to the Amazon Care app,
they are asked a couple of questions that serve to triage the call, and route
it to a nurse, nurse practitioner or physician as appropriate. She said it
usually takes 60 seconds or less to connect to a health professional.
The health care providers are supplied by Care Medical, a
contractor that works with Amazon on an exclusive contract.
While Amazon has launched initiatives in the health field
such as Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Halo, a wristband that measures vital statistics,
Amazon Care will be the tech giant's first foray into providing health care
services beyond its own workforce, Helton said.
Many employers and insurers have started taking a more
direct role in providing care to the people they cover instead of waiting to
pay claims as they come in. They were expanding telemedicine access before the
pandemic hit, and big employers also were adding or expanding clinics on or
near their work sites.
Ensuring quick access to care can help keep patients healthy
and on the job. It also can prevent an illness from growing worse and becoming
more expensive to treat. Employers have been struggling for years to gain more
control over health care costs that consistently rise faster than wages and
inflation.