Amazon Primary Care Is Coming To A Town Near You. E-Commerce Giant Steps Up Healthcare Chain Rollout

Where Walgreens and Walmart WMT failed, Amazon AMZN aims to succeed. As Americans age, primary healthcare has become an increasingly important target for retailers. However, it has proven elusive to conquer. According to CoStar News, Amazon is trying a different approach. 

By partnering with hospital chains and offering care to its Prime members — currently with an additional cost — it hopes to succeed where others have not. The San Francisco-based Amazon One Medical recently opened its first center in Edgewater, New Jersey. One Medical offers a hybrid virtual and in-person primary care service with further expansion plans in Jersey City and Englewood in New Jersey, Westchester County in New York, and Cleveland planned this year. 

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Partnering With Major Hospitals

In New Jersey, One Medical is partnering with Hackensack Meridian Health, the Garden State’s largest health network, according to CoStar News. In Westchester, it will facilitate treatments for members of the Montefiore Health System and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

One Medical customers in Edgwater will be offered same-day and next-day in-person appointments and 24/7 virtual care. The facility will treat both short and longterm patients with chronic conditions.

As with other businesses under its umbrella, Amazon is hoping to leverage its vast Prime membership base to build its healthcare business. Currently, Prime members can add One Medical membership for $9 a month or $99 a year. The company’s website states that One Medical also works with 10,000 U.S. employers as part of a benefit package for their workers and their dependents.

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Reduced Competition

Two years after buying One Medical for $3.9 billion in February 2023 — one of the company’s biggest acquisitions — Amazon finds itself with two of its main competitors either out of the race or diminished.

Walmart exited the primary healthcare business last April, closing 51 locations. 

"Through our experience managing Walmart Health centers and Walmart Health Virtual Care, we determined there is not a sustainable business model for us to continue," a company statement read. "Escalating operating costs create a lack of profitability that makes the care business unsustainable for us at this time.”

Walgreens Village MD bought Summit Health and CityMD — an urgent-and-primary-care chain — for $8.9 billion in 2022. However, recently, it appeared to be divesting from the primary healthcare space and going private, announcing a $10 billion deal with Sycamore Partners.

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Lawsuits, The Loss Of Google, And A CEO

The loss of competition doesn’t mean that Amazon’s entry into primary healthcare hasn’t been without problems. Last year, its use of virtual medical visits resulted in a wrongful death lawsuit, which brought into question the efficacy of telehealth in diagnosing problems. According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit alleged poorly trained staff were used, leading to the death of a diabetic patient who was told to buy an inhaler to treat their symptoms.

In July, Google announced it would not renew its contract with One Medical, according to Business Insider. The longstanding agreement gave Google employees access to discounted medical care and was a big loss for One Medial as Google was the company’s biggest customer, accounting for 10% of its revenue in 2020, before Amazon, a rival purchased it. That number dropped slightly in 2021, after which One Medical stopped publicly disclosing its finances. 

One Medical suffered another setback in March when the chain lost CEO Trent Green, who left to head global insights and strategy firm National Research.

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