Amazon Care is winding down telehealth services

Amazon is planning to wind down its telehealth services which is known as Amazon Care. Moreover, the company is also preparing to cut 400 jobs when Amazon Care will close in December.

Not a ‘complete enough offering’

Last month, Amazon announced that they will no longer offer the telehealth offering after December 31, 2022. Moreover, the company announced the decision of closure through a memo to the employees. According to Amazon the service was not a ‘complete enough offering’ for its customers. Hence, they have now decided to discontinue Amazon Care by the end of this year. Amazon Care was one piece of Amazon’s strategy to upend the health-care industry. They launched the Amazon Care in 2019 as a pilot program for its Seattle-area employees. Later, Amazon expanded the program for other employers across the country. The services included telehealth app and option to schedule physician visit at home or office. However, Neil Lindsay, senior vice president for Amazon Health Services told the employees that Amazon Care is not the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers.

WARN Act and 400 layoffs

Amazon said that they will layoff 159 employees at Amazon Care. They will carry out the layoffs under Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings. The WARN Act binds an employer to provide advance notice to its employees in case of mass layoffs and plant closure. In addition, Amazon will also let go 236 employees from Care Medical. Care Medical is a team of clinicians that was charged with treating Amazon Care patients. Furthermore, Care Medical is an independent firm which had a contract to work with Amazon. However, Amazon announced that the laid off employees will have the opportunity to join other teams within the organization.

“Many Care employees will have an opportunity to join other parts of the Health Services organization or other teams at Amazon — which we’ll be discussing with many of you shortly — and we’ll also support employees looking for roles outside of the company.” Neil Lindsay wrote in the memo.

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