Amazon is taking another shot at becoming a regular health care source for customers with the launch of a service centered on virtual care.

The e-commerce giant says its Prime customers can now get quick access to a health care provider through a program that costs $9 a month or $99 annually.

The announcement arrives less than a year after Amazon announced the $3.9 billion acquisition of the membership-based primary care provider One Medical, which has medical offices in more than 20 markets.

The company has made a number of attempts to incorporate healthcare into its platform and has started building momentum after some initial setbacks.

The company announced in August that it was adding video telemedicine visits in all 50 states to a virtual clinic it launched last year.

Yet Amazon shut down a virtual health care service last year that it spent years developing, and it was part of a high-profile but failed push to address health care costs in a partnership with two other major companies, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan.

Through the new service, patients will be able to connect virtually around the clock with care providers through its Prime One Medical membership program. The service includes video chats and an option to make in-person visits if there are One Medical locations near by.

The company said Wednesday that its membership fee covers the cost for the virtual visits. But customers would have to pay for any visits they make to the company’s One Medical primary care offices. They can use insurance for that.

Virtual care grew popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many health care providers have since expanded their telemedicine offerings. It has remained popular as a convenient way to check in with a doctor or deal with relatively minor health issues like pink eye.

While virtual visits can improve access to help, some doctors worry that they also lead to care fragmentation and can make it harder to track a patient’s overall health. That could happen if a patient has a regular doctor who doesn’t learn about the virtual visit from another provider.

Updated November 9, 2023 at 4:46 p.m. ET to add missing word in the seventh paragraph and correct "last summer" to "last year" in sixth paragraph.

Share:
More In Business
Ways to Improve Employee Engagement; Data-Driven Approach to Mental Wellness
On this episode of On The Job presented by ADP: Gemma Burgess, CEO of Ferguson Partners, explains what people are looking for in an employer, and how to convey positive work culture to potential employees; Amy Leschke-Kahle, Vice President of Performance Acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Company, an ADP company, breaks down how encouraging employee engagement and empowering employee voices can benefit every workplace and busts a myth about employee engagement while working from home; Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, discusses Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
Busting an Important 'Work From Home' Myth
Amy Leschke-Kahle, Vice President of Performance Acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Company, an ADP company, joins Cheddar to discuss how encouraging employee engagement and empowering employee voices can benefit every workplace and busts a myth about employee engagement while working from home.
A Data-Driven Approach to Workplace Mental Wellness
Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, joins Cheddar to discuss Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
Biden Calls Out Big Oil for Corporate Greed but Production Complicated by EV Future
Consumer prices saw an 8.6 percent jump in May, with fuel prices showing the biggest surge, climbing 17 percent last month. As inflation continues to climb to levels not seen in 40 years, President Biden took to calling out ExxonMobil and other major oil companies, accusing them of holding back production while continuing to collect huge profits at the cost of the consumer. Mark Avallone, the president of Potomac Wealth Advisors, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss. “They have reduced long-term expenditures. But why? Because the world is going to alternative energy and as consumers, if we thought that that welcome change to alternatives was going to happen without pain, we might have been mistaken," he said. "The less investment they make in oil because they're getting ready for a new world of electric vehicles, the less we're going to be prepared for oil shocks such as the one we got when Russia invaded Ukraine."
N2K: Gun Reform In Congress, Jan. 6 Hearings, SCOTUS Decision On The Way
Catching you up on the stories you need to know this morning, the U.S. could soon get its first major gun safety law in years, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. capitol holds its second hearing, and today might just be the day the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, and decides on new gun laws.
Load More