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☆ Amazon, CVS, and Walgreens went all in on primary care. Their bets are bleeding money.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

In the past several years, Amazon, CVS Health, and Walgreens each spent billions to own primary-care companies. CVS bought Oak Street Health. Here's how the bets that Amazon, CVS, and Walgreens made are playing out. CVS is building more Oak Street clinics despite lossesAn Oak Street Health location in Elgin, Illinois during its grand opening. CVS is hoping to help Oak Street clinics get profitable quicker by driving more patients their way.

Persons: Andy Jassy, Thos Robinson, It's, JP Morgan, Berkshire Hathaway, Business Insider's Eugene Kim, Kim, they've, it's, VillageMD hasn't, Jefferies, Brian Tanquilut, Tanquilut, Lydia Ramsey, Mike Pykosz, Pykosz, Aetna, Michael Cherny Organizations: CVS Health, Walgreens, Amazon, CVS, Oak Street Health, Business, Aetna, Medical, Washington Post, Summit Health, Oak, Health Locations: Oak, VillageMD, Haven, Florida, Elgin , Illinois

☆ Inside Project Espresso, Amazon's secretive and painful reset of its big healthcare bet
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

It already shut down the Amazon Care telehealth service in 2022, while disbanding Haven , a joint healthcare venture, in 2021. She said Amazon's healthcare business continues to grow and receive positive customer feedback. Less focus on senior healthcareAnother idea One Medical recently explored was to put less focus on the senior healthcare business. Still, for some One Medical employees, Amazon’s scrutiny is leading to growing frustration. “As Trent Green communicated to employees, One Medical employees will not return to physical offices at this time.

Persons: Big, Samantha Kruse, ” Kruse, Andy Jassy Chelsea Jia Feng, Neil Lindsay, ” Amazon’s Kruse, Amazon's Kruse, Lindsay, ”, Amir Dan Rubin, Kruse, Amazon’s, “, Trent Green Organizations: Business, Amazon, Care, Amazon Health Services, Amazon's Pharmacy, Amazon Health, Iora Health, Iora, “ Locations: New York, Minneapolis, St, Petersburg , Florida, Francisco

☆ I quit college and became a truck driver. It's the best decision I've made for my career.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Aria Yang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

AdvertisementThis as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kiara Areli, a 22-year-old truck driver based in the Chicago area. At Amazon, I joined the Amazon Career Choice program , an educational initiative designed to empower Amazon employees to learn new skills for career success. Becoming a truck driver was one of the best decisions I've ever madeBefore becoming a truck driver, I was in a dark place and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Honestly, I don't regret not continuing college — now I feel like I have a purpose because I'm also inspiring others to consider this truck driving career path. If you have worked as a truck driver and want to share your story, email Aria Yang at ayang@insider.com.

Persons: —, Kiara Areli, would've, you'll, It's, I've, I'm, Aria Yang Organizations: Service, Amazon Locations: Chicago, Lockport, Lombard, Batavia , Illinois, Skokie , Illinois, ayang@insider.com

☆ Amazon Prime members just got cheaper healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon has announced that Prime subscribers will get $100 off membership of its healthcare service. AdvertisementAdvertisementAmazon has rolled out a new perk for Prime members: cheaper healthcare. The company has announced that customers who pay for Amazon Prime will now be able to get $100 off access to its One Medical healthcare service. Membership of One Medical, which usually costs $199 annually, will be available to Prime members for $99 a year. The new benefits, which started on Wednesday, allow Prime members to access 24/7 virtual care with One Medical.

Persons: —, Amazon, Andy Jassy Organizations: Amazon, Service, Amazon Prime, Healthcare

☆ Amazon beefs up Prime loyalty program with One Medical discount
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon is beefing up its mainstay Prime subscription program with a new benefit that gives members access to discounted One Medical memberships. Prime members can add up to five additional memberships on the same plan at a rate of $6 per person, Amazon said. Amazon is integrating One Medical into its Prime membership service after acquiring the primary health-care provider in July 2022 for roughly $3.9 billion. The tech giant has steadily added a buffet of benefits to its Prime membership program over the years as a way to lure more subscribers. Launched in 2005, Amazon Prime gives members access to free two-day shipping, as well as access to exclusive movies and TV shows, among other perks.

Persons: Neil Lindsay Organizations: Amazon Health, Amazon Prime, Amazon Locations: U.S, Haven

☆ Amazon employees slam its Clubhouse-competing app in internal meeting following abrupt leadership change: 'This place is becoming a circus'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Eugene Kim | Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A sudden leadership change at Amazon's Amp live radio division this week has drawn a rancorous response and trenchant questions from employees, reflecting the mounting hostility within the failing business. Shortly after the announcement, employees submitted a long list of questions for leadership at an internal town hall meeting scheduled for Wednesday. 'Failing to lead Amp to success'Many questions submitted by employees asked about the general direction of the Amp business. Another person noted the Amp team has missed some of its key performance goals, such as monthly active users. Employees expressed a strong distrust of the leadership team, too.

Persons: Matt Sandler, John Ciancutti, Alok Verma, didn't, Nicki Minaj, Sandler, John, Eugene Kim, Katherine Long Organizations: Amazon, Amazon Music's, Amazon Care, Employees

☆ Amazon loses One Medical CEO a year after acquiring primary care provider
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amir Dan Rubin, CEO of primary care provider One Medical, which Amazon acquired about a year ago, is leaving the company later this year. Twitch CEO Emmett Shear resigned from Amazon in March, and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey retired last year. Amazon has looked to shore up its presence in health care through the One Medical and PillPack deals, as well as by developing services in-house. Last August, the company shuttered its Amazon Care telehealth service amid broader cost-cutting efforts. Haven, a joint venture intended to disrupt health care, disbanded in 202.

Persons: Amir Dan Rubin, Neil Lindsay, Rubin, Trent Green, Trent, PillPack, TJ Parker, Elliot Cohen, Twitch, Emmett Shear, John Mackey, It's Organizations: Amazon, Amazon Health Services, CNBC, Washington Post, Federal Trade Commission, Whole Foods Locations: Haven

☆ Amazon rolls out its virtual health clinic nationwide
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon is rolling out its virtual health clinic service nationwide, the company announced Tuesday. Amazon does not provide the telemedicine services itself, but instead provides Amazon Clinic as a platform to connect telemedicine partners with patients. With Tuesday's announcement, users in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., can access Amazon Clinic via video visits. Due to regulatory issues, message-based chat on Amazon Clinic is only available in 32 states. Amazon Clinic doesn't yet accept insurance, but consumers can use insurance to help pay for medications prescribed through the service.

Persons: Nworah Ayogu, Ayogu, Berkshire Hathaway Organizations: Amazon Clinic, Curai, Alpha, D.C, CNBC, Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Locations: Washington, PillPack

☆ Amazon lays off some employees in its Pharmacy unit
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon has let go of some of the employees in its Pharmacy business, the company confirmed to CNBC. A "small number" of staffers in the Amazon Pharmacy division were informed Thursday they were being laid off, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement. "As a result, we have made the decision to adjust resources and a small number of roles have been eliminated on the Amazon Pharmacy Services team." The company laid off 18,000 employees over several months last fall and earlier this year, then announced an additional 9,000 employees would be let go in March. Some employees in the company's pharmacy, digital health tools and Halo fitness band units were laid off, CNBC previously reported.

Persons: Brad Glasser, Glasser, Andy Jassy Organizations: CNBC, Amazon Pharmacy, Amazon, Amazon Pharmacy Services Locations: PillPack

☆ Amazon will not host re:MARS robotics and AI conference this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon doesn't plan to host its re:MARS conference on cutting-edge technologies like robotics and space this year, the company confirmed on Friday. It will incorporate the subjects into its existing lineup of Amazon Web Services events. The decision to cancel re:MARS was not made for budgetary reasons, Amazon said. Amazon used re:MARS to spotlight some of its futuristic innovations, such as delivery drones, warehouse robots, and its first home robot. At last year's conference, Amazon demonstrated a feature where its Alexa digital assistant impersonated a deceased relative.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, Bezos Organizations: Amazon Web, Machine, Robotics, Amazon, Amazon Care, Amazon Web Services, CNBC

Amazon will no longer sell its Halo health and fitness tracker, the company announced Wednesday. Amazon will stop supporting Halo devices and the Halo app on July 31. "At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas like Amazon Halo in our efforts to delight customers," the company said. "While we are proud of what we built, we recently made the difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023." The company said it will refund any purchases made in the last year of Halo View, Halo Band, Halo Rise and Halo accessory bands.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy needs to take a page out of Mark Zuckerberg's cost-cutting playbook at Meta
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Andy Jassy, CEO of Club holding Amazon (AMZN), said Thursday he's committed to investing in overall growth while creating cost efficiencies throughout the enterprise. Jim has said that Amazon needs to cut another 200,000 jobs or more to even approach pre-pandemic staffing of around 798,000 in Q4 of 2019. For example, Amazon has stopped physical store expansion, shuttered Amazon Care and Amazon Fabric, and it's letting go of devices that won't provide solid returns. Jassy also addressed Amazon's stock price during CNBC's interview. AMZN .SPX mountain 2020-04-09 Amazon vs. S & P 500 since April 2020 Bottom line Amazon needs to make additional moves to further reduce its headcount.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says his letter to shareholders follows one of the toughest economic years in recent memory. Read it in full.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +38 min

Further, as machine learning adoption has continued to accelerate, customers have yearned for lower-cost GPUs (the chips most commonly used for machine learning). While some areas of the economy have struggled over the past few years, Amazon Business has thrived. Some people have never heard of Amazon Business, but, our business customers love it. For years, Amazon customers had asked us when we'd offer them an online pharmacy as their frustrations mounted with current providers. More recently, a newer form of machine learning, called Generative AI, has burst onto the scene and promises to significantly accelerate machine learning adoption.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he's confident he can get costs under control in shareholder letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +38 min

☆ How Amazon virtual health clinic's top doctor thinks about patients as customers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Ian Thomas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In 2018, it bought online pharmacy PillPack for $750 million, which it followed up by launching its own virtual clinic for chronic conditions. Now Amazon Clinic, which launched in November, is looking to open up a new option for virtual care to help with common issues like allergies, acne and hair loss. That hasn't come without some setbacks – Amazon Care, its effort to take on telemedicine and primary care for the employer market nationwide, was shut down in August after just three years. Health care, he said, can at times be correctly described as paternalistic. "Care can be a thing that we do to patients rather than with patients or for patients," Ayogu said.

☆ U.S. will not challenge Amazon.com's plan to buy One Medical, FTC official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will not file a complaint aimed at stopping Amazon.com's (AMZN.O) plan to buy primary care provider One Medical, an FTC official said on Tuesday. Amazon.com Inc said in July it would buy One Medical for $3.49 billion, expanding the e-commerce giant's virtual healthcare business and adding brick-and-mortar doctors' offices for the first time. The FTC official said that the agency planned to send a pre-consummation warning letter that would say it still had specific concerns about the deal. One Medical is in more than a dozen U.S. markets and gives members access to virtual care at any time of the day or night. The FTC is also probing Amazon.com's plan to buy Roomba maker iRobot Corp (IRBT.O) for $1.7 billion.

☆ Amazon has been trying to break into healthcare for years. Here's a look at everything it's done.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

It's focused on providing primary care and dispensing prescriptions through Amazon Pharmacy. It hasn't been smooth sailing, and the tech giant has shut down some projects. It hasn't been smooth sailing for every healthcare project. In August, it shut down Amazon Care, a big homegrown primary-care bet. Analysts think in 2023 Amazon will continue to build on its healthcare business through more acquisitions.

☆ Microsoft could bring back Clippy, but make him smart
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —This week, Microsoft confirmed it’s planning to invest billions in OpenAI, the company behind the viral new chatbot tool ChatGPT. The prospect of Microsoft, maker of software that people mostly hate, getting involved with ChatGPT, a product people generally like, is raising a lot of eyebrows. Almost immediately, people began joking on social media that ChatGPT could be used to revive the broadly maligned, big-eyed goon known as Clippy. “There is a kernel of truth to the Clippy comparison,” David Lobina, an artificial intelligence analyst at ABI Research, told Sam. All of the above suggestions were generated by asking ChatGPT various forms of the question, “How could Microsoft integrate ChatGPT into its products?”Argh, Samantha, you scamp!

☆ Amazon launches a subscription prescription drug service
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon is adding a prescription drug discount program to its growing health care business. The retail giant said Tuesday that it will launch RxPass, a subscription service for customers who have Prime memberships. Amazon Prime members can now receive all of their eligible generic medications for just $5 a month and have them delivered free to their door. Last year, the company shuttered its hybrid virtual, in-home care service called Amazon Care after it failed to get traction from employers. And Haven, a company Amazon created in collaboration with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to improve health costs, dissolved a year earlier than that.

☆ Amazon adds generic prescription perk for Prime members
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Amazon Pharmacy home screen on a laptop computer arranged in the Brooklyn Borough of New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. Amazon on Tuesday announced a new prescription perk for U.S. Prime members, hoping to boost subscriptions and attract users to its pharmacy service. Amazon introduced, then shuttered, a telehealth service called Amazon Care, and announced in July it would acquire boutique primary care provider One Medical. Amazon also offers a Prime prescription savings benefit, which offers a discount of up to 80% on generic medications and up to 40% on brand-name prescriptions. An August report from Morgan Stanley found Amazon Pharmacy didn't rank as a top perk for Prime members, based on a survey of users, according to Business Insider.

☆ Leaked Amazon screenshots show employees scrambling to identify teams affected by layoffs. Here's a list of more than 35 groups getting cuts.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In an internal Slack channel, Amazon staff shared team names and job levels to add clarity to the process. As Amazon began the largest layoffs in company history on Wednesday, an internal Slack channel blew up with employees sharing details about the job cuts. The layoffs-related Slack channel has over 37,000 members. "It's been moving so fast, I can't keep up with scrolling," another person told Insider about the Slack channel. Many employees in the Slack channel expressed shock and surprise.

☆ Amazon has only gotten started with its ambitions to be a serious player in healthcare. Here are 3 acquisitions it could make next year.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The next month, it abruptly announced it would shut down Amazon Care, its app-based primary-care service for employers, three years after launch. In November, Amazon launched Amazon Clinic, a virtual service where patients can pay Amazon directly to get treatment for common conditions like allergies and acne. Natalie Schibell, a vice president and research director at Forrester, said that was a sign Amazon had learned from its mistakes at Amazon Care. When Amazon shuttered Amazon Care, it put those mental-health ambitions on hold. Lennox-Miller said Amazon could buy health data startups the company had already invested in, like the health-equity-focused Harmony Health or the value-based-care data company Clinify Health.

☆ Amazon is gutting its voice-assistant Alexa. Once founder Jeff Bezos's pet project it's now the primary target of historic layoffs.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Amazon's Alexa and the devices team at large is now the prime target of the biggest layoffs in the company's history, according to press reports and an internal email seen by Insider. Instead, Amazon wanted shoppers to buy more things through Echo devices by placing orders through the voice-assistant. Reports of Alexa mistakenly sending voice recordings to the wrong person or Amazon employees secretly listening to private conversations stoked fear of privacy concerns. But even so, its financial contribution often fell short of expectations, more than half a dozen employees told Insider. Employees told Insider the product is Bezos's latest pet project.

☆ Amazon is taking another shot at offering healthcare — and this time, it plays to the tech giant's key strengths
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"Amazon Clinic" plays to Amazon's strengths as an ecommerce behemoth. On Tuesday, Amazon announced "Amazon Clinic," a virtual care service that will treat patients' common conditions such as allergies and hair loss. The launch comes just a couple of months after the tech giant said it was shuttering Amazon Care, a telehealth service that provided care through people's employers. By contrast, Amazon Clinic could have more success doing what it knows best, especially if it can lure Prime members. Amazon Clinic.

☆ Amazon launches virtual healthcare clinic in U.S. for common ailments
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 15 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Tuesday launched Amazon clinic, a virtual platform where users can connect with healthcare providers to help treat common ailments like allergies and skin conditions. Amazon has for years sought to expand its presence in healthcare. It bought online pharmacy PillPack in 2018, underpinning a prescription delivery and price-comparison site it later launched as Amazon Pharmacy, which lets users buy over-the-counter drugs via Prime memberships. Amazon saidits new service would operate in 32 states, where customers who seek treatment, will be connected to healthcare providers. read moreThe company is also waiting to close its $3.49 billion deal to buy One Medical, as it seeks to expand its virtual healthcare presence and add brick-and-mortar doctors' offices for the first time.

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