July 25, 2018
Amazon, the mega-online shop many of us turn to for everything from books to clothing to household appliances, is pushing into the health-care market, according to reporting from Natalie Walters on the finance web site, The Motely Fool.
Walters points to four areas signaling a move by Amazon into healthcare:
Acquisition of PillPack in June
PillPack ships your pills to you in sorted fashion, so you know exactly what you need to take each day. “This company was practically made for Amazon to buy, not only because PillPack is good at fulfilling orders by mail, but also because Amazon hopes it will “delight” customers. PillPack’s system means customers can avoid standing in line at the pharmacy, or forgetting which pills they need to take each day,” Walters writes.
Joined a Joint Healthcare Venture
Amazon has gotten involved with a joint healthcare venture with J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway. The goal of the partnership is to figure out how to bring down health-care costs for their roughly 1.2 million combined employees.
Alexa May Soon Help with Health
Earlier this year, Amazon created a team of more than 12 people to focus on growing its voice assistant, Alexa’s, healthcare skills to aid with things like helping users manage a chronic illness or helping the elderly. One such skill could be to simply remind people to take their daily pills.
Sales of Medical Supplies
Amazon wants to become a major supplier to U.S. hospitals. “To do this, Amazon is working on a tool that will allow hospitals to compare the prices of supplies on Amazon Business to the prices of supplies from traditional distributors. As a bonus, Amazon also thinks it can use this as an opportunity to rethink the safety and security of supplies and equipment used in hospitals,” Walters writes.
