Index Insider: Amazon launches virtual-first healthcare solution

HEALTHCARE

Amazon is expanding its virtual-first healthcare solution to U.S. companies this summer. Amazon currently offers telehealth services to U.S.-based Amazon employees via Amazon Care. Employees based in Washington state also get access to in-home clinical services via a subsidiary Care Medical. Care Medical is licensed to operate only in Washington state today, but reports indicate that the provider has filed paperwork to do business in 17 additional states.
 
It appears the initial foray will be to offer Amazon Care as an employer-sponsored benefit. Amazon has not indicated it intends to sell directly to healthcare payers – as of yet anyway. But it’s clearly assembling the infrastructure to disrupt the $3 trillion healthcare market. With this launch, combined with the acquisition of virtual pharmacy PillPack in 2018, Amazon appears to be building a patient-centric solution that will provide both virtual and in-home care, as well as drug fulfillment and distribution.
 
The virtual-first approach is not without risk. Amazon recently joined Ascension, Amwell and a number of other clinical care providers in the Moving Health Home coalition, which is focused on lobbying the U.S. Congress to overturn pre-pandemic restrictions for reimbursement of telehealth for government-sponsored programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
 
Amazon is clearly taking advantage of the massive surge in demand for telehealth services. A recent report from nonprofit FAIR Health found that telehealth claims for private insurers rose nearly 3,000 percent in 2020. This is spurring some serious market competition. Kaiser Permanente recently launched its virtual-first health plan, which its positioning to be the primary touchpoint for its patients. Digital health companies like Teledoc and One Medical also already have a significant head start in this space.

DATA WATCH

 
ServiceNow acquired Intellibot, an India-based RPA company, to help it build RPA functionality into its platform. This will infuse ServiceNow’s massive process workflow capabilities with screen-based process automation – a critical capability as the company looks to broaden beyond ITSM and into enterprise service management.
 
UiPath announced this week the acquisition of Cloud Elements, an API integration platform. With this latest move, UiPath is going down the enterprise technology stack, which will enable its customers to build bots that can talk to the API as well as the user interface. UiPath is now positioning itself as “the first provider to offer enterprise-grade user interface (UI) and API-based automation capabilities in a single platform.”