Amazon is making some big waves in its budding health-care business following its biggest reorganization yet. This unprecedented move seeks to explore the deeper waters of the United States’ multitrillion-dollar health market. This major restructuring reflects some high-profile leadership changes and appears to be a move to right the ship within Amazon Health Services. The company framed these exits and moves as the healthy growing of its health business.
Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, stated that the company has been working on this overhaul for several months. He stressed the need for streamlining the internal organization to foster greater efficiency and innovation at the firm.
Our leadership team has been focused on simplifying our structure to move faster and continue to innovate effectively, Lindsay remarked during a recent briefing.
Amazon Health Services includes several divisions focusing on various aspects, directed by industry veterans. These include:
- One Medical Clinical Care Delivery, led by Dr. Andrew Diamond
- One Medical Clinical Operations and Performance, led by Suzanne Hansen
- AHS Strategic Growth and Network Development, led by John Singerling
- AHS Store, Tech and Marketing, led by Prakash Bulusu
- AHS Compliance, led by Kim Otte
- AHS Pharmacy Services, led by John Love
The restructuring comes after a string of high-profile exits from the company. Dr. Vin Gupta, the chief medical officer of Amazon Pharmacy, quit the company recently in February. At the same time, Trent Green, the CEO of One Medical, resigned in April. This comes on the heels of news that Aaron Martin, vice president of health care at Amazon, intends to depart from the company. At the same time, chief medical officer Dr. Sunita Mishra departed in May.
Despite these changes in leadership, ecommerce expert Lindsay was quick to point out that Amazon’s health business has been seeing “very strong growth” in all of their offerings. The company refused to share any specific monetary numbers about its health division.
Amazon announced it will open pharmacies in 20 new cities in the next year. Through this strategic initiative, these two companies anticipate driving greater access to pharmaceutical services for their U.S. customers. Approximately 45% of U.S. customers will soon be eligible for same-day medication delivery, a move aimed at improving patient convenience and satisfaction.
One of the problems we’re trying to solve is the fragmented experience for patients and customers that’s common in healthcare, Lindsay added. His vision is a testament to the desire to fix inequities that so many patients encounter when trying to access care in today’s reality.
In 2020, Amazon purchased PillPack and launched Amazon Pharmacy. This acquisition was connected to a larger plan to build a massive footprint in the healthcare space. With its $3.9 billion acquisition of primary care provider One Medical, Amazon made its biggest move yet into the health sector. This company had gone public only that year, but it was losing money when acquired. One Medical, for example, posted a net loss of $101.1 million against revenue of $272.4 million as of 12/31/22.
The competitive landscape for Amazon’s emerging health services is rapidly intensifying as well. Founders of PillPack, TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen, left Amazon in 2022. So they have now opened their new healthcare marketplace — General Medicine — in order to directly compete against Amazon services through health and wellness ecommerce.
Lindsay underscored the potential impact of their initiatives on everyday lives: “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.”
Amazon plans to remake America’s health-care landscape. While the possibilities are thrilling, the challenges we face are daunting. The company’s strategy is to blend cutting-edge technology, strategic acquisitions and partnerships into its growth. Like us, they want to improve the convenience and overall experience of patients with healthcare.