Amazon Expands Into Telehealth and Home Care
Many more people turned to telehealth services than ever before—the CDC reports a huge increase in telehealth during the pandemic, thanks to a combination of factors, including limited in-person services, caution from those avoiding in-person services, and an expansion of telehealth services and offerings from health facilities. Even Medicare, which previously didn’t allow home telehealth visits, saw a boom in virtual visits. In other words, more people were more willing to use telehealth and more medical offices were willing to offer it.
Amazon Care officially launched in September 2019 and has virtual care available nationwide, with in-person services in select areas, including Seattle, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Austin, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Arlington. The service will also be branching out to 20 more cities this year, including San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, and New York City.
Basically, the virtual arm of Amazon Care works just like any other telehealth service, allowing patients to speak with a doctor or practitioner virtually from their home through a mobile app for non-emergency health issues. The in-person portion, however, is actually throwing healthcare back to its original model: home care. Patients in the areas with in-person care will have a nurse sent to their home for more complicated healthcare issues allowing the nurse to do everything from lab draws to physical assessments while in the patient’s home.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s0E1pGI7CeRjMyD6-dVGfFMNUq24yRBGWmMBsMGibLA/edit?usp=sharing