Amazon expands telehealth services to cover entire country

Amazon is making its virtual health services available nationwide and plans to make in-person services available in eight more cities, including some of the nation’s largest.

In a blog posting earlier this week, the company said its Amazon Care virtual services, which it launched in Seattle in 2019, will now be available everywhere in the country. Among the services it offers are COVID-19 and flu testing, vaccinations, preventive care, sexual health evaluations, and prescription requests and refills.

In addition, the company plans to offer in-person care in 20 more cities by the end of this year, including San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and New York. In these locations Amazon will send nurses to patients’ homes to provide services, such as blood draws, that can’t be performed via video. The in-person care component is already available in Arlington, Virginia; Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

“Amazon Care is uniquely positioned to fill a critical gap in the health care system because it combines the best of virtual care with a new approach to in-person care,” the company says in the posting. “The combination allows patients to receive a wider range of care, from on-demand primary care to chronic care management, in the comfort of their home.” Demand for in-home care has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it adds.

The company says it has recently added Silicon Labs, TrueBlue and Whole Foods Market (which Amazon owns) to the roster of companies offering Amazon Care to their employees.

“We’ve brought our on-demand urgent and primary care services to patients nationwide. As we grow the service, we’ll continue to work with our customers to address their needs,” Amazon Care director Kristen Helton said in the posting.