Multiple reports citing an internal memo at Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) say that the company will stop offering its Amazon Care services at the end of 2022.
Geekwire reported that Neil Lindsay, Amazon Health Services SVP, issued an internal memo declaring that the Amazon Care primary healthcare services “wasn’t going to work long-term.”
According to the report, Amazon has said that the decision to no longer offer the primary healthcare services after Dec. 31, 2022, only affects Amazon Care and none of the other healthcare ventures made by the company, which include a potential multi-billion-dollar acquisition of home healthcare services company Signify Health. The company also announced a nearly $4 billion deal to acquire One Medical last month.
Lindsay wrote in the memo that the company determined that Care “isn’t the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers.”
“This decision wasn’t made lightly and only became clear after many months of careful consideration. Although our enrolled members have loved many aspects of Amazon Care, it is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting,” the memo said.
Geekwire’s report stated that the company did not disclose the number of employees affected by the halting of the services.
In the memo, Lindsay thanked the affected teams for their hard work and said that many Care employees will have an opportunity to join other parts of Amazon.
Another miscalculation in healthcare?
The announcement comes only half a year after Amazon announced that it was making its Amazon Care virtual health services available nationwide.
Now, Amazon Care appears to be the latest experiment in the healthcare space that didn’t quite work out for the mega-retailer. Four years ago, it reportedly dropped plans to distribute pharmaceutical products to hospitals. Last year, Amazon shuttered a joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase that sought to transform healthcare delivery.