CERN - Amazon Continues to Make Stealth Moves Into Healthcare
Back in September, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced a new benefit for its workers. The pilot program -- called Amazon Care -- is a healthcare service being offered to the company's employees and their families in and around its Seattle headquarters. The program provides a number of innovative offerings, including both in-person and virtual options, while offering patients follow-up care and prescription drug delivery.
While the nascent program might not seem particularly noteworthy, anyone who's followed the company for any length of time knows that Amazon has a history of developing products and services for in-house use at the company, only to offer them to customers and businesses later on.
More importantly, this is just one in a number of recent moves that form a clear pattern that should put the industry on notice that Amazon's coming -- and it could mark the beginning of a dramatic shift in how healthcare is done.