Business 0319

Amazon looks to expand its telehealth footprint

After helping to furnish your home office in 2020, Amazon now wants to help provide your healthcare.
The tech giant is expanding Amazon Care — which currently provides its Washington-based employees with access to virtual and in-person health services — to its workers nationwide. And it plans to offer the service to other companies as a workplace benefit for their own employees. Amazon says the program's follows a "successful launch" for its tens of thousands of Washington workers 18 months ago.
“By supplying Amazon Care as a workplace benefit, employers are investing in the health and well-being of arguably their most important asset: their employees," Amazon said in a release Wednesday. Amazon Care gives workers on-demand access to virtual chats or video visits with medical providers who can provide treatment of illnesses or injury, Covid testing and flu shots, nutrition consulting, pre-pregnancy planning and a range of other services. Its doctors can order prescription medications, which are delivered to patients' homes by Amazon.
The program also offers in-person visits by providers to workers' homes for additional services such as blood draws.