Amazon is beginning to open new locations of the primary care provider One Medical — a potential game-changer for medical care — which it acquired earlier this year, as the tech giant moves into the health care space.
One Medical told ABC News it has just opened two locations in Connecticut, is planning to open a third office in the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco, and will open its first office in Milwaukee this fall.
Three other locations have been announced in Connecticut, but One Medical said plans for opening won’t be announced until 2024.
In July 2022, Amazon agreed to acquire San Francisco-based One Medical, giving the company dozens of brick-and-mortar locations, and closed the deal in February 2023 for $3.9 billion.
Instead of a copay or other additional fees, patients pay a $199 annual membership fee to receive care for everything from common illnesses to chronic conditions, to mental and sexual health needs, according to One Medical’s website.
People enter a One Medical office on July 21, 2022 in Oakland, Calif.
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Subscribers also receive around-the-clock access through an app, can schedule same or next-day in-office or remote visits, and can schedule lab work to be done at any One Medical location. One Medical also says they accept most major insurance plans, as well as Medicare.
“We’re on a mission to make it dramatically easier for people to find, choose, afford, and engage with the services, products, and professionals they need to get and stay healthy, and coming together with One Medical is a big step on that journey,” Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said in statement at the time the acquisition was announced.
“One Medical has set the bar for what a quality, convenient, and affordable primary care experience should be like. We’re inspired by their human-centered, technology-forward approach and excited to help them continue to grow and serve more patients,” the statement continued.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at the time that the concept could be game-changing in terms of making it fast and easy to schedule medical provider appointments, compared to traditional methods.
“If you fast forward 10 years from now, people are not going to believe how primary care was administered,” he said in a statement. “For decades, you called your doctor, made an appointment three or four weeks out, drove 15-20 minutes to the doctor, parked your car, signed in and waited several minutes in reception, eventually were placed in an exam room, where you waited another 10-15 minutes before the doctor came in, saw you for five to ten minutes and prescribed medicine, and then you drove 20 minutes to the pharmacy to pick it up.”
This is not the first time Amazon has entered the world of health care. In 2018, the Seattle-based retail giant announced it was buying PillPack, an online pharmacy that ships drugs and medications directly to customers’ homes, for more than $750 million.
However, not all of Amazon’s health care entry attempts have been successful. Last year, it shut down its Amazon Care telehealth service, which provided virtual visits as well as in-home visits for patients to receive tests and vaccinations.
Amazon is not the only tech company trying to own a piece of the health care market. Apple, Google and Microsoft have also made moves in recent years.
Through apps and features on the iPhone and the Apple Watch, Apple has cornered the market in terms of enabling users to keep track of their everyday health and fitness, but is hoping to expand into data communication between doctors and patients.
Close-up of sign with logo on facade of the regional headquarters of ecommerce company Amazon in the Silicon Valley town of Sunnyvale, Calif. on Oct. 28, 2018.
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Additionally, earlier this year, Google announced it was expanding the use of AI in health care to help clinicians detect diseases earlier and answer medical questions patients have.
More recently, it was revealed last week that Microsoft has partnered with Duke Health as it looks to develop AI tools to “augment healthcare experiences for providers and patients,” according to the announcement.