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Amazon Care to launch across U.S. this summer, offering access to medical care
- brundolf 6y agoI used to think Google was the last company I could possibly want involved in my healthcare I stand corrected
- afavour 6y agoI'm going to need to see an in depth analysis of the privacy policy before I touch this one.
- Iolaum 6y agoTo what benefit? The privacy policy can change next week and there ll be nothing you can do about it. Unless you don't plan to read it as an individual but as part of an effort, like EFF does, to point out it's shortcomings.
- humanlion87 6y agoCan they have a different privacy policy compared to the other companies in the same field? My understanding is that anyone dealing with healthcare data has to be HIPAA compliant.
- webmaven 6y ago> Can they have a different privacy policy compared to the other companies in the same field? My understanding is that anyone dealing with healthcare data has to be HIPAA compliant. HIPAA compliance probably means that while other care providers aren't allowed to sell your medical history to marketers, Amazon doesn't even have to do that, and can send you personalized offers based on your medical history all day long without violating HIPAA. Furthermore, this may give them data they can use to correlate medical history with other behavior, and thus potentially infer medical events about other customers that aren't Amazon Care patients.
- ProAm 6y agoThere is no way on Earth I would allow a company like Amazon near my healthcare. I would love to know what their definition of 'high-quality' is.
- fweespeech 6y agoIs Amazon going to screen for counterfeit medical professionals on this platform? Their track record in this regard isn't great.
- supercon 6y agoSoo, is it just me or does the amazon.care site not work?
- marcod 6y agohttps://amazon.care/ https://amazon.care/ works fine for me.
- blakesterz 6y agoThis says Amazon Care is already in use in WA. Anyone out there with any experience using this as their health care provider? (after dealing with "normal" health insurance I can only think "well, it can't be any worse, can it?")
- markovbot 6y agoI have no doubt Amazon will be highly innovative in making healthcare worse for everyone long term
- yhoneycomb 6y agoKeep in mind "provider" can mean someone with a 1.5 year online nurse practitioner degree that they got while working part time, with the majority of classes on "nursing theory." American healthcare is truly a mess.
- ARandomerDude 6y agoThey can't practice without board certification or being supervised by an MD, and in some states both. It isn't like they can go to Bob's Online College and then it's a free-for-all after that.
- yhoneycomb 6y agoFirst of all "board certification" is completely meaningless in the context of nurse practitioners. They are "board certified" by the nursing board, with standards that are completely paltry compared to the standards set for actual medical doctors. Secondly, even for medical doctors "board certification" is largely an extortion scheme. Third - there are about 28 states where nurse practitioners can work independently of any supervising physician. Also, in many cases "supervision" is a joke, with the supervising physician hundreds of miles away and simply signing charts without reviewing them. > It isn't like they can go to Bob's Online College and then it's a free-for-all after that. It actually is, though. You would be very, very surprised.
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- gotoeleven 6y agoSorry, your amazon care has been terminated due to repeated terms of service violations.
- marcod 6y agoIf you tell your pediatrician you don't want to vaccinate your kids they might kick you out too. I don't think this is unique about Amazon's offering.
- gotoeleven 6y agoSorry marcod, our algorithms have detected that you tried to purchase a book that has been deemed harmful by our trust and safety council so we've canceled your upcoming kidney transplant.
- danaliv 6y agoOn the one hand, I'm glad they're calling this Amazon Care so I know to stay a million miles away from it. On the other hand, why on earth did they attach the Amazon name to this? Does anyone actually want Amazon involved in their health?
- sdesol 6y agoI think this is one of those things where there are more people that love and trust Amazon vs hate them.
- danaliv 6y agoFair. In any case, I really wish we could drive an iron wedge between work and health. They're billing this as a workplace benefit, so it does nothing to get at one of the fundamental problems with American healthcare.
- thrill 6y agoWe need to drive a wedge between work and all benefits - people need to be allowed, without the state interfering, to choose exactly where they want to spend the money they got for their labor, from health insurance to retirement, to, gasp, paying for all the taxes levied on your paycheck.
- mpalczewski 6y agoWhen I order something from Amazon, I might get a counterfeit. When I ask my insurance company to pay for some health care, they might pay.
- brewdad 6y agoPresumably, Amazon will let you know the price upfront at least.
- granzymes 6y agoAmazon is one of the most liked and trusted brands in the world: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210304005244/en/Costco-Amazon-and-Apple-Take-Top-Spots-in-Retail-Customer-Satisfaction-Study https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210304005244/en/Cos...
- mciancia 6y agoI wonder if prime membership will get you your appointment sooner /s
- renewiltord 6y agoMy prediction is that this is going to be generally good at the 95th percentile. Virtual-first care will drop costs significantly, improve outcomes (since you won't have to go in to a high-risk environment for many routine things), and be the forerunner of what will come: the breaking of the healthcare complex.
- endisneigh 6y agoI honestly can’t stand Amazon, but isn’t health care the kind of thing you want commoditized and streamlined? Amazon is in the upper echelon of doing this kind of thing. I would much rather be able to request services in the way Amazon allows you to buy products than continue to engage in the current opaque system.
- ceejayoz 6y ago> isn’t health care the kind of thing you want commoditized No? I want it separated from employment and universally and freely available like the rest of the developed world. (At half our costs, and similar outcomes!)
- ryandvm 6y agoFair enough. Would you also prefer if we had government-run grocery stores or gas stations?
- endisneigh 6y agoWhat does it being a commodity have to do with it being separately from employment and freely available? Sorry, I’m not following.
- ceejayoz 6y agoIt’s not a commodity. There’s no price I wouldn’t pay to be treated for an active heart attack - if I’m even conscious to decide!
- endisneigh 6y agoI’m still not following. I’m using the word “commodity” to refer to a good or service that’s indistinguishable from another of the same type. So under that definition what you’re describing isn’t relevant to whether it’s a commodity or not. Also, health care isn’t a commodity right now but I’d argue it should be (a high quality one).
- 11thEarlOfMar 6y agoThe value and effectiveness of Amazon's approach will take some time to be proven or disproven. But I'm open to any approach to bring insane US health care costs into line. Americans spent nearly 18% of the US GDP on health care in 2020. Healthcare spend increased 4.6% in 2019 alone[0]. It's out of control. [0] https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NationalHealthAccountsHistorical https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta...
- madadui71 6y agoCommoditizing healthcare will only make its quality plummet, seen it in countless cases all around the world The point is that it's not a commodity, because it's often the product of the skills of a single physician, whether manual or mental. I want to pay more to choose a better physician if he's going to cut my -something- open, not choose the lowest price based on bogus "Amazon recommends" reviews.
- rbarnes01 6y agoPretty impressive that insurance isn't involved. I hope that becomes the norm, insurance should only be intended for catastrophic events. That said, it's frustrating that consumers need to go through their employers to get their healthcare.
- gremlinsinc 6y agoI think a better model would be something where insurance is included..or covered by the source of healthcare. Example: Hospitals are generally the source / hub of medicine in an area. So you subscribe to a hospital and pay them 5% of your income. Hospital then negotiates rates with other hospitals or all hospitals maybe set common-rates for things. Whether you're in an injury locally or across the globe they cover the cost. Hospital gets recurring income monthly to budget by. PCP's and specialists might get a cut of that as well maybe they get shares of the income based on office visits/year?
- brewdad 6y agoOh dear. The "For Employers" page gives me pause. IS Amazon looking to be the next Kaiser Permanente rather than upending the entire industry? https://amazon.care/for-employers.html https://amazon.care/for-employers.html
- impostervt 6y agoI'd love this for when my kids get sick off hours (which is every time they get sick). When my first key was very little I was a super anxious new parent. Now that I have two, and they're older, I know they're not immediately going to die when they get sick.
- nineplay 6y agoI'm in the US and have a loved one with a chronic disease, and honestly just the logistics of health care couldn't get much worse. Coordinating between different specialists, different labs, and different pharmacies is always a nightmare. Calls, manual entry, etc. Just last week I had to deal with offices _faxing_ each other back and forth with one insisting they sent it and the other insisting they never received it. I constantly have to be the one making an active effort to keep on top of things or suddenly I find it's going to take me a week to get a medicine that I have only 5 days left on If amazon does nothing else but makes making an appointment as easy as ordering a tube of toothpaste, I'll celebrate.