An Amazon company logo marks the facade of a building in Schoenefeld near Berlin, March 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)
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 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.
The 21st Annual Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), is returning to Miami on February 24 with proceeds to benefit the future leaders of the hospitality industry. Lee Schrager, the founder and director of the festival, and Food Network star Jeff Mauro joined Cheddar News to discuss what ticket holders can expect, how the festival benefits students, and how Mauro will be paying tribute to fellow food celebrity, Guy Fieri, by hosting a charity auction dinner. "I mean there's nobody bigger, nobody more magnetic right now in the food space than Guy," Maura said. "I mean the guy had a Super Bowl commercial on last night. That's a dream of mine, so I'm one step closer there just by doing a tight 20 minutes at his tribute dinner."
Green tech investments had a stellar 2021 amid a wave of SPAC mergers and massive valuations. But that momentum seems to be slowing down as investors turn to safer companies amid tightening monetary policy and skepticism about profitability and reliability amid SEC investigations. What happens next for this next-generation group of startups? Sophie Karp, an equity research analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, joins Closing Bell to discuss.
In late January, NFT company Candy Digital cashed in when a Shohei Ohtani Icon NFT sold for $100,000, breaking the six-figure sale price mark for MLB NFTs for the first time. Scott Lawin, CEO of Candy Digital, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why his company is very excited about the future of digital collectibles and how the Ohtani NFT sale shows consumer confidence in the marketplace.
Sēkr, a mobile app that aims to improve and digitize the outdoor travel experience, announced this week that it raised a $2.25 million seed round. In the Sēkr app, users can get access to more than 50,000 campsites throughout the U.S. including the nation's largest database of free campsites. The company is saying it is on a mission to make every step of the planning experience for outdoor travel easier, safer, and more social. Breanne Acio, co-founder and CEO of Sēkr, and Jess Shisler, co-founder and COO, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
