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Amazon.com Inc. is closing its Amazon Care service as the company looks to retool its healthcare offerings following the purchase last month of a line of primary care clinics.
The technology giant Wednesday said it had decided to shut down the business by year-end because it didn’t offer a robust enough service for the customers Amazon is targeting. The unit has operated as an employee-based telehealth service that has also dispatched medical providers to patients’ homes.
“This decision wasn’t made lightly and only became clear after many months of careful consideration,” Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said in a memo to employees shared with The Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post earlier reported on Amazon’s plans to shutter Amazon Care.
Amazon’s decision comes as the company has otherwise shown great ambition in the healthcare industry, which Chief Executive Andy Jassy has earmarked as a priority. The company last month announced plans to buy 1Life Healthcare Inc. for $3.9 billion. 1Life operates a line of primary-care clinics under the name One Medical. Amazon
AMZN,
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is also among bidders for healthcare company Signify Health Inc.
SGFY,
+1.23%,
The Wall Street Journal has reported.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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