Telehealth: Time for Amazon Care

• March 18, 2021
• kupplinadmin
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Amazon has been inching their way through the telehealth marketspace for around 2 years now and are now making their next step to further their hold. Their program, Amazon Care, has been available to employees in Washington State for the past couple of years and offers free telehealth consultations with in-home visits from registered nurses as well (for a fee). The company has just announced that Amazon Care will be made available to employees in all 50 states in the coming months.

The mega-corporation has had multiple ventures in the healthcare space, but this portion of its approach has generated some of the most promising results. With more people at home, there is a greater need for services that eliminate the amount of contact between individuals and distributors of goods and services. Regular Amazon goods are already integral for many people’s daily lives as there aren’t many normal goods that cannot be bought through the online retailer. Medical goods are from a space that is widely demanded and being able to complete the multitude of common errands at home provides more time and energy to be focused on other areas that could use the influx of time.

A valuable service provided by Amazon is their 2-day shipping of medical prescriptions to Prime customers which further lessens the burden on customers who have to usually make time to venture out of their house to a pharmacy to acquire their prescriptions. Amazon also provides an array of discounts for medications that can be acquired through over 50,000 participating outlets to provide a greater web of distribution and increase the convenience for the customer. With this established net of dispensation, they can also provide discounts for Prime customers on brand names and generic medicines. A 40 percent and 80 percent discount respectively provide a greater incentive to complete errands from the comfort of home.

Just paying the fee for Prime can eliminate most issues that a patient goes to see a doctor for through their telehealth programs and various benefits which saves quite a bit of time. While the market may still be difficult to carve a slice out of, Amazon is doing its best to integrate itself into the space in various facets. There are questions on how relevant these business models will be in a post-pandemic environment, but the need for ease and convenience is always prevalent in our global society and provides an incentive for companies such as Amazon to innovate and produce goods and services that will positively impact the lives of their customers.

-Azaan Moledina