With plans to purchase primary care provider One Medical in a nearly $4 billion deal, Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) is making a significant entry into the healthcare sector.
A healthcare company called One Medical focuses on digital health and warm, practical in-office primary care. It has locations in 17 metro areas, including Atlanta, Austin, Texas; Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; Orange County, California; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; San Diego; Seattle; and San Francisco, according to its website. Miami and Milwaukee will soon get more locations.
“We think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention. Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy—we see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” said Neil Lindsay, SVP of Amazon Health Services.
As a result of the proposed acquisition, 1Life Healthcare (Nasdaq: ONEM), a San Francisco-based provider of administrative and management services to the connected One Medical physician-owned professional organizations, saw a nearly 70% increase in the value of its stock by lunchtime trading today.
Amir Dan Rubin will remain as One Medical’s CEO. Said Rubin: “There is an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients, providers, and payers. We look forward to innovating and expanding access to quality healthcare services, together.”
Although it had a difficult start in the industry, Amazon has been striving to expand its role in the healthcare industry for years. It abandoned intentions to supply pharmaceuticals to hospitals four years ago after having trouble persuading big hospital organizations to alter their purchasing procedures and sever ties with wholesalers. A collaborative company between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase that aimed to revolutionize healthcare delivery was shut down last year.
However, the large retailer has continued and achieved success as well:
Major medical device firms can access a variety of cloud- and AI-based services from its Amazon Web Services. According to company representatives, they are assisting MedTech businesses in making sense of all the available healthcare data.
