
Amazon launches Amazon Care, a virtual medical clinic for employees - t23
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/24/amazon-launches-employee-health-clinic-amazon-care.html
======
dangus
So far, the comments here are seriously misunderstanding what Amazon is doing
here, and are getting unnecessarily inflammatory just because it’s Big Bad
Amazon.

It’s just a remote care benefit. My current employer offers it, administered
by a vendor, and it’s separate from your actual insurance. You can call or
video chat, send pictures, and even get prescriptions filled off-hours. It
comes in handy for a lot of common quick scenarios.

The only news is that Amazon is big enough to self administer it.

It’s pretty much inevitable that companies of that immense size save money by
self-administering or self-insuring many benefits like this.

~~~
arcticbull
Much as I think this is a job for the state and not private sector, America
has a long history of employers providing healthcare. Kaiser started out as a
shipbuilding company with in-house medical clinic, and eventually the
shipbuilding arm folded and the medical arm opened up to all comers, yielding
today’s KP.

What’s old is new again, as they say.

~~~
doctorpangloss
Without judging the quality of Kaiser's care, consider that it makes about as
much sense that a shipbuilding company is now a healthcare insurer as the fact
that General Electric was a finance firm.

This is the root of the newsworthiness of Amazon's entries into new
businesses.

~~~
tonyhb
To judge the quality of Kaiser's care, they're best in class. Several studies
and reports show that Kaiser delivers some of the best care you can get.

([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3383159/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3383159/),
[https://www.bmj.com/content/324/7330/135.short](https://www.bmj.com/content/324/7330/135.short),
[https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/our-
story/news/accolades-...](https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/our-
story/news/accolades-and-awards/kaiser-permanente-earns-californias-highest-
ratings-clinical-car),
[https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/pdf/10.1377/hlthaff.19.2.1...](https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/pdf/10.1377/hlthaff.19.2.185))

~~~
azernik
A note for the healthcare shopper - I can testify firsthand and from doctor
friends that their general healthcare is spectacular, but their mental
healthcare system is in crisis. The state has repeatedly fined them for
failing to provide "timely access" to mental health care
([https://californiahealthline.org/news/kaiser-permanente-
cite...](https://californiahealthline.org/news/kaiser-permanente-cited-again-
for-mental-health-access-problems/)), and their mental health care workers are
going on strike not for better pay/benefits but for higher staffing and
shorter patient wait times ([https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/california-
kaiser-menta...](https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/california-kaiser-
mental-health-clinicians-in-fight-for-patient-care/)).

~~~
marcinzm
As a previous user of their mental health system I can agree from personal
accounts. The system is a disaster and has been for over a decade.

Want to see a therapist? Wait is two months but we can prescribe you some
drugs within a week if you'd prefer that. Feeling a potential serious adverse
reaction to those drugs? We'll call you back in a month, maybe, or enjoy your
ER visit. First time patient needing some new medications? Here is a three
month supply, see you again in three months, hope they work out and you don't
need any adjustments.

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txgxyxdkssppg
Amazon employee here that used this service or it's immediate predecessor.
It's just a branded third party teledoc service for internal employees.

I described very clearly that I needed a refill of a common non-scheduled
medication. They took my credit card info and charged me $50, transferred me
to the NP who immediately told me they could not prescribe it.

A waste of time and money. I went to the NP at the local CVS MinuteClinuc and
had the bottle of pills in 30 minutes.

~~~
mrfusion
What’s an NP? Wouldn’t the minute clinic charge just as much?

~~~
chihuahua
Nurse Practitioner

------
disabled
As somebody with complex health problems: These sort of telemedicine/urgent
care arrangements, where one visits with a random nurse practitioner or
doctor, without near complete access to your medical record and without proper
follow up, can be disastrous.

I am not blaming Amazon for anything. I am pointing out that your health
problems need to be followed up, with your general practitioner (GP), if you
have to visit an urgent care, even if you are "healthy". In many cases, all
you really need to do is have the urgent care medical records transferred to
your GP--and confirm that the GP office got them.

Considering that the third leading cause of death in the US is preventable
medical errors [1], complete and accurate health records are important. In
fact, this was how I was properly diagnosed with a very rare disease. I am now
in remission and I get a second chance to live my life.

[1] [https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2016/05/03/4766361...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2016/05/03/476636183/death-certificates-undercount-toll-of-medical-
errors)

~~~
colek42
For someone like me who gets really bad poison ivy about once every 2 years
these appointments are amazing. I get to tell the doctor exactly what is wrong
with me and what protocol works best. I don't have to miss work (remote) and
it only costs me 30 min of time. If these types of visits are not right for
your situation don't use them.

~~~
disabled
I agree with you 100%. But it is still very important that your GP gets the
records from the service, and to use a service that can do this.

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beager
White-labeling telemedicine benefits could be a novel retention play for
companies, but I think that only works if:

a. the benefit is obviously superior (better care than you'd get from a PCP or
national telemedicine brand like Teladoc)

and/or

b. the benefit is emulsified with covered perks like gym memberships, wellness
programming, etc.

It's interesting that this is a story though. It's either a recruiting tactic
or they're floating it as something they might sell outwardly later. It's also
potentially a way to control coverage costs for employees.

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erikpukinskis
I love that Amazon is moving in this direction.

Employer-provided health insurance is a total racket. I would love to see
Medicare-for-all in the US, and support that. But we also need a plan B.

But how do you break a racket? You can’t just built a startup, because the
market is fucked: everyone with money already gets care for free. Most of the
people who need care are broke.

And there are so many layers of indirection: patient -> employer -> insurer ->
provider.... that you’re not just dealing with a single racket, you have
layers of protectorates that are milking people at every stage.

Plus there’s the scale issue, with a pool of 100 patient-customers, a few bad
years can sink your startup. Yes you can buy specialty insurance, but it would
need to be a very complex product and you need scale to make that appealing to
an underwriter.

Which brings me to why I am excited about Amazon trying this:

A big employer seems like the only party other than the state who can break
the racket.

Amazon is more or less bearing the full cost of their employees care, and they
have the scale to act as their own insurer. They also have the software and
data science teeth needed to build the backoffice.

Medicare for all is what we need, but I support Amazon because I believe in
the diversity of tactics.

------
facethrowaway
> Employees will have an option to see a health provider via a mobile app or
> website, and they can text a nurse on any health topic in minutes. If an
> employee needs follow-up care, Amazon Care can arrange for a nurse to pay a
> visit at home.

Have fun trying to get hold of an actual doctor. I understand that nurses are
more than capable of handling lots of issues, but I doubt Amazon will publish
a breakdown of the doctor:nurse ratio for this initiative.

~~~
0xDEFC0DE
Nurse Practitioners can handle a good bit of every day things. If that's who
shows up, the article is being disingenuous.

~~~
giancarlostoro
I came here to say that Nurse Practitioners are the ones who can do
perscriptions. Not regular Registered Nurses. For anybody who might not
already know. And correct it is only a doctor who can prescribe certain types
of medications, likely stronger medications.

------
olefoo
Neofeudalism intensifies.

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eeZah7Ux
That's pure dystopia.

------
decebalus1
The naming is horrible, because 'Amazon Care' is an oxymoron (sorry, couldn't
help it).

This is crap. It's basically streamlined McMedicine. Any ailment which steps
out of the ordinary will be deferred or ignored. This is vaporware. Its goal
is to save Bezos money for employee health insurance and using it's gimmicks
to advertise it as a 'benefit'

> Health care represents a $3.5 trillion sector for Amazon

This is the problem right here. As long as medical care is a business, it's
gonna be run like a business and trust me, you don't want Amazon running
anything medical for you.

~~~
healthscam
What's your solution non-profits, how well are those working for you now? If
anything the utter bureaucracy and malfeasance under guise of charity has
destroyed countless American lives with bizarre practices such as surprise
billing, preferential rates. If anything there is a need for vertical
integration in healthcare, to save it from disaster that is
pharma/insurance/hospitals.

Healthcare is as toxic as Taxi industry pre Uber and if it takes Amazon or
Apple similar what Uber/Lyft did to destroy the current state so be it. it
will still be a net positive.

~~~
decebalus1
Proud to see someone making an account to respond to my comment.

My solution is government-run single payer health insurance, separated from
employers. It doesn't need 'disruption' or 'innovation' or any other Silicon
Valley band-aid. It just needs to drop the cancerous insurers from the market
completely and separate profits from healthcare.

