(San Francisco) Amazon announced Tuesday that its telemedicine platform is now available everywhere in the United States, a new extension of the American group whose empire goes far beyond e-commerce.
Posted yesterday at 2:44 p.m.
Launched at the end of 2019, the Amazon Care application allows employees of companies that have subscribed to this service to communicate quickly and at any time with doctors or nurses, by chat or video.
Initially available only to Amazon employees based in western Washington state, the group began rolling it out to other businesses and the rest of the country last year.
Amazon Care also offers, in eight cities, home medical visits – to take a blood test or a vaccine, for example. This in-person service is set to expand to 20 additional cities in 2022, from San Francisco to New York to Miami.
The telemedicine industry took off amid health restrictions during the pandemic. According to McKinsey, the percentage of Americans using telemedicine had increased from 11% in 2019 to 46% in April 2020.
And in a country where health insurance often depends on the employer, the current recruitment difficulties encourage companies to offer increasingly attractive social benefits to their employees.
“As more organizations seek out convenient, comprehensive, and high-quality healthcare solutions, we see demand and interest in Amazon Care’s hybrid offering grow,” Amazon said in a statement. communicated.
In addition to the distribution of books, clothing or fresh products, the management of an online video platform and its cloud service (remote computing), Amazon has also been offering a pharmacy since the end of 2020 in the United States. online, which makes it possible to order prescription drugs on the Internet, and to compare the price differences according to the insurances.
The Seattle group, like those in Silicon Valley (Google, Apple and Meta/Facebook), is facing investigations and lawsuits for abuse of a dominant position.
American elected officials are also working on laws to reform competition law and even possibly dismantle the technology giants.
But until now the authorities have not really slowed down the race ahead of these ubiquitous companies in the daily lives of consumers.