March 8, 2023
Amazon likely is far from done with its investment into the healthcare market. Here are predictions for what’s next in Amazon’s healthcare plans, according to a piece by Giles Bruce recently published in Becker’s Hospital Review.
Interest in Amazon’s next move in healthcare increased last month following its acquisition of One Medical.
“With their broad reach, robust supply chain and growing fleet, I wouldn’t be surprised if they expanded into the remote patient monitoring and home health sector,” Laura Marquez, senior director of digital transformation for Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health told Bruce. “As their provider base grows, they could focus on meeting the customer where they are by providing in-home visits, especially in under-served and rural areas.”
Bruce noted that Amazon reportedly bid for home health company Signify Health last year, but lost to CVS’s $8 billion offer.
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“In the future, Amazon might manufacture its own generic medications or create its own commercial-like health insurance, Saad Chaudhry, chief digital and information officer of Annapolis, Md.-based Luminis Health, told Becker’s for a Feb. 1 story,” Bruce writes. “Or the company could deliver prescriptions for its subsidiary Whole Foods, said Jeff Cohen, MD, chief physician executive of community health and innovation at Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network.”
Others believe Amazon will eventually retreat from American healthcare.
“The delivery of clinical care in the U.S. is bounded by an ‘iron triangle’ of cost, access and quality that has proven resistant to change in over 60 years of efforts even with massive adoption of technology,” James Whitfill, MD, chief transformation officer of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based HonorHealth told Bruce. “My guess is that after a few years, this complexity plus changes to HCC [Hierarchical Condition Category] methods by CMS in Medicare Advantage will drive Amazon to pull back into more traditional transaction spaces where they naturally excel.”
