After more than seven years of acquisitions, various healthcare service launches and the closure of its telehealth business, Amazon Health Services plans to shift its long-term health market strategy with a new restructure of the company.
WHY IT MATTERS
Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, discussed the overhaul with CNBC and described the restructuring as a natural evolution.
"Our leadership team has been focused on simplifying our structure to move faster and continue to innovate effectively," he told the network. "One of the problems we’re trying to solve is the fragmented experience for patients and customers that’s common in healthcare."
Leaders from within will oversee the divisions, according to Friday's story.
Dr. Andrew Diamond, who has been with One Medical, a chain of primary care clinics, since 2007 and through its $3.9 billion merger with Amazon two years ago, will lead clinical care delivery. Suzanne Hansen will oversee provider operations and performance.
Four additional divisions make up AHS: a strategic growth and network development unit led by John Singerling; a store, tech and marketing division led by Prakash Bulusu; compliance services spearheaded by Kim Otte; and its pharmacy business steered by John Love, who has been overseeing Amazon Pharmacy since 2022.
The reorganization news comes on the heels of the departure of Dr. Sunita Mishra, Amazon’s chief medical officer, and an announcement by Aaron Martin, Amazon's vice president of healthcare, that he, too, will soon leave the company after his role is transitioned. In April, Trent Green stepped down from his post as CEO of One Medical.
THE LARGER TREND
Amazon has focused a lot of attention on growing its pharmacy business.
The cloud services giant entered the healthcare provider market when it bought online pharmacy startup PillPack in 2018. For upward of $1 billion, Amazon purchased the pre-sorted dose packaging operation and its refill coordination and prescription renewal services to add to its online pharmacy business.
In 2021, Lindsay, who had previously overseen the tech giant's Prime and marketing verticals, took over the company's foray into virtual pharmacy, telehealth and health diagnostics services.
The tech giant has opened more pharmacies in U.S. cities, launched free drone delivery of medications and made agreements with pharmaceutical firms to accept manufacturers' coupons – all to increase medication purchasing through its platform.
Meanwhile, last month, Amazon Pharmacy and Serve You Rx, a pharmacy benefit manager, announced a home delivery services deal on maintenance medications.
"Our collaboration with Serve You Rx represents a meaningful step forward in transforming the pharmacy experience," said Tanvi Patel, Amazon Pharmacy's vice president and general manager.
Patel told our sister publication, MobiHealthNews, that pairing Amazon's "customer-obsessed approach" with Serve You Rx's PBM expertise offers 24/7 pharmacist access and transparent pricing, in addition to Amazon's delivery services.
ON THE RECORD
"If we can make one thing a little bit easier for a lot of people, we’ll save them a lot of time, a lot of money and some lives," Lindsay reportedly told CNBC. "And if we stack these changes up over time, it’ll feel like a reinvention."
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
