12 ms·

Amazon Buys One Medical

245 points by synergy20 4y ago

rawgabbit 4y ago
Has anyone have experience with One Medical? For example, if you have health insurance through your job, what does it provide that your insurance does not?
- 98codes 4y ago
  One Medical is basically a conglomeration of doctor's offices with an app that allows for easy scheduling, remote visits, chat, and other stuff.
  - Iwan-Zotow 4y ago
    Yep! Basically, Uber/Lyft for PCP
- SmellyPotato22 4y ago
  I have one medical. Basically the value proposition for me is that its easier interface to the whole medical system. Finding a primary care physicians can be done in like 5 minutes. Stuff like scheduling appointments, virtual visits, vaccines, tests and what not through the app is super easy. IDK if it will get mainstream adoption but to me it takes the edge off seeking medical care. Also their clinics are nice and in convenient places.
- skullone 4y ago
  If it's anything like BetterHelp, you'll just be scheduled to the first available, lowest cost provider who get paid half or less the market rate for professional care. And knowing Amazon, they'll innovate newer ways to make it a dystopian dehumanizing process that leaves all parties with less care, less money, except for the shareholders.
  - nexus7556 4y ago
    I think OP is asking about current experiences not what you think Amazon will turn it into.
    - celdon25 4y ago
      I was a OneMedical member for 10 years. They definitely became that way before Amazon took it over.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- nexus7556 4y ago
  My employer has a relationship with them. They have multiple locations at our various offices. I have on in my building. The convenience is unbeatable, both the on site services and convenience of the app. I always can get an appointment. That being said over the last five years the quality of care has gone down. The good practitioners have left, and now there is quite a bit of turnover. I’ve had to change PCPs 4x in the last three years.
- 8ytecoder 4y ago
  I signed up after learning that a simple visit takes weeks to get an appt if you’re a new patient. At the time one medical offered same day appt and it was a big deal. Some of this has now been matched by insurance providers providing video visits for free, medical providers (like Kaiser/Shutter) and urgent care centres providing quicker appts. I now stay with them because it’s still easier to get all the usual stuff done through them, their offices are nicer and cleaner and having a reachable PCP really helps navigating the American system for me when I need a specialist consult or a prescription filled. During the early days of Covid it was super easy to get tested at their offices as well.
- dcow 4y ago
  One medical is just a medical group like any other. They aren't insurance, they bill your insurance. They also charge a subscription fee which is not covered by insurance for membership. Out of membership you get access to their convenience services like mobile consultation. Most of these conveniences have been incorporated into big insurance players platforms by now, because they save money. They do so by trying to preempt you going to the clinic and starting to rack up charges when a video nurse could have told you to just take a chill pill. They also claim to offload much of the administrative and annoying health insurance work so you don't have to worry about it. I found this to be mostly true, but again becoming replicated by improved UX on the insurance providers sites. The other nice thing about them being a group is they have multiple clinics scattered around bigger metro areas. You can go to any site kinda like you would an urgent care. I don't use One Medical any more because I no longer live in an area where they exist. They were a good customer experience for the basics. I will note that they are really just a triage replacement and the people you see are often less experienced. And they don't do specialists, really. If you get into anything complicated you're dealing with the general medical system as normal (annoying trips to random floors in big research hospitals to do weird tests that don't really tell you anything other than you already know type of vibe, not really knowing if you're in network or not because nobody can tell you a straight answer type of vibe, not knowing up front what classifies as a co-pay and what's a covered benefit, why is "hospital" lab work billed more than clinic lab work and why does that mean my insurance covers less of it and I have to pay extra more type of vibe). They're not vertically integrated like a Kaiser.
- NegativeLatency 4y ago
  used it about 5 years ago in SF, switched to finding my own PCP since I moved elsewhere now that amazon owns it I wouldn't go near it
- imroot 4y ago
  I had BetterHelp through my old job, and used their telemedicine feature...until they realized that I didn't live in a state that they had an "official" location in, so, they cancelled my membership (ironically enough, when I used their telemed offering, I was in a state that they had offices in, just not near me!) ...only to reactivate it again when my employer questioned why, and have them cancel it again two weeks later. I haven't even tried to use them or look at their offerings after being de-platformed on repeat for the longest part of a year until my employer dropped them.
- todd3834 4y ago
  Before at home Covid tests were available this was the most convenient way to get a test without waiting in line
- todd3834 4y ago
  In my opinion the best thing they offer is little to no wait time even for same day appointments. Beats urgent care experience by a massive amount.
  - tjohns 4y ago
    This is the big reason I originally signed up with them. Being able to reliably schedule same/next-day appointments is such a breath of fresh air. You might not see your specific primary doctor if it's short notice, but I've always been able to see someone, and they'll have access to all your records. Also, having my health record available regardless of which doctor, office, or city (within their network) I'm visiting is nice.
  - zeroonetwothree 4y ago
    My providers urgent care never has much of a wait time anyway.
- hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
  I'll echo some of the other responses. I'm a One Medical customer - started with my previous company, then when I left my employer I decided to still pay the annual subscription fee (was basically $100 with a promo for folks who just left an employer). So far I've been a huge fan. Things like scheduling appointments, getting labs done, having an easy back-and-forth with a provider when you just have a question and nothing major, is way, way, way better with One Medical than with any of my previous doctors. I will challenge a bit another commenter's statement that "Most of these conveniences have been incorporated into big insurance players platforms by now" - while that's true, other insurance corp apps have generally been absolutely abysmal. One Medical's app is generally excellent IMO. Of course, the big question has to do with quality of the practitioners. I've found that I really like my doctor at One Medical, but he is only recently out of training, so not sure how long he'll stick around
- onemedthrowww 4y ago
  I would not have understood the benefits until I moved to DC from a smaller town. In my home town, it was relatively trivial to find a competent GP who took my insurance. In the much larger market of DC, totally the opposite! Which led me to using OneMedical for a while. The main advantages they had a few years ago were: - Multiple locations (including near my apt and work place) - easy to schedule appointments on short notice with either my PCP (if available) or anyone else on their staff (if not) - Very easy to communicate with doctors/etc online, generally their portal was "not shitty" - Appointments always started on time The downside was the extra cost (trivial compared to the hassle it was to deal with other services) and the staff being a bit more impersonal -- they really hurried you out of there, which is the flip side of always starting on time. :) I've actually kept up my account even though I see a different PCP these days, since it felt like it could be useful as a fallback on short notice. I'm thinking about cancelling now that Amazon has bought them, though.
- s1mon 4y ago
  A previous employer paid for it, now I pay for it out of pocket. The convenience of scheduling routine things or setting up a video visit with a provider is more than worth it. There are many things where you might have considered going to an ER or making an appointment with your PCP, but instead you can have a quick video call which can help triage/understand what you're dealing with. A few months ago I got a stomach bug traveling, and was able to do a quick video visit and get a script for antibiotics sent to a local pharmacy even though I was out of my home state. The ease of that one event is well worth the annual fee. There was no additional charge for the video visit. During the height of covid, I got some other respiratory thing that I thought might be covid and I was extremely stressed. I did a video visit with a provider who was working (from home) while sick with covid. I thanked her for her service and started to cry.
  - LUmBULtERA 4y ago
    That sounds great, though I can schedule quick video visits with Kaiser too. This does not sound unique.
    - dataflow 4y ago
      Can you get Kaiser in any state?
      - paulocal 4y ago
        for $199/year?
    - SoftTalker 4y ago
      Yeah this has become common with many insurers and health conglmomerates.
  - zeroonetwothree 4y ago
    Sutter Health offers this with no annual fee.
    - 4y ago
- nimih 4y ago
  I had access to--and used--OneMedical through my employer-provided health insurance for a couple years. The way to understand it isn't as an alternative to your health insurance, but as a care-provider network with a nice app and a bunch of offices (at least in the Bay Area, where I lived at the time) that you pay a subscription to. Overall, my experience was pretty good (with the caveat that this is all in the context of the US healthcare system, so the bar is rather low): I was happy with my PCP[0] and the overall level of care provided, and scheduling appointments (with my PCP or otherwise) was always really easy and straightforward[1]. I also never personally ran into any weird/scammy billing issues, something which I have encountered with some frequency at other healthcare providers[2]. That all being said, my work provided access to OneMedical as a perk, and I'm not sure if I'd pay the membership fee out of my own pocket if I ever move back to a city where they offer coverage (even setting aside concerns about its acquisition by Amazon). [0] n=1, and I'm a white dude without any serious chronic illnesses or ailments, so take with the obvious grains of salt [1] I was basically always able to schedule appointments within a week, and usually same- or next-day, which IME is unheard of in the American medical system in general. As a contrasting example, when I tried to find a PCP about a year prior to enrolling in OneMedical, but still living in the same metro area, most scheduling offices told me that there would be a 3-6 month waiting period for scheduling a routine physical, assuming they were taking new patients in the first place. [2] Again, n=1, so I doubt this is really a generalizeable data point.
- 1auralynn 4y ago
  It's paying $100-200 a year to be able to get labs done pretty much immediately, schedule appointments easily, sit in waiting rooms that aren't depressing, and have a PCP and office workers that are nice to you and treat you like a human. Oh, and the video appointments are amazing. One time I had a really terrible UTI and got antibiotics within the hour from my phone.
- mattknox 4y ago
  I've been a customer of theirs for at least 12 years, I think (I have an entry in my password manager from about that long ago, and I might have had an account before that). It's been fantastic, in general: I can get a phone consult anytime I've wanted one, and can get in to see a doc with pretty short notice. They are good at giving me the referrals I ask for, even if they are weird (eg., after listening to Chamath Palihapitiya talk about Coronarary Arterial Calcium scans, I got curious and wanted one, and 1med got me the referral I wanted/dealt with insurance, etc.). About the only downside is that it's a bit harder to keep a very consistent GP, in that 1med seems to have a fair amount of turnover. I don't know if it's hard to keep a consistent GP in other contexts, as I pretty much didn't go to doctors between the time I left high school and when I started using 1medical.
- reissbaker 4y ago
  Echoing other comments here, I use One Medical and am an extremely happy customer — I pay the yearly subscription out of pocket. Online scheduling + video calls at any time with their staff make it well worth it, and they have offices in many cities and states so I've even seen doctors and gotten bloodwork + vaccinations done while traveling (domestically in the US). My experience with their doctors has generally been top notch as well, including one doctor visually and immediately diagnosing a family hereditary condition that had taken my sister years to get diagnosed through other doctors. And since they have so many offices, I can pretty much always get a next-day appointment in the Bay Area. I've never had to wait a memorable amount of time once I show up, and they can do a lot of labwork immediately onsite if you need or want it without additional scheduling or needing a return trip. I've traveled and lived abroad, and IMO One Medical clears even the relatively high European-style medical system quality bar. Happy for them that they got acquired by Amazon, since the scheduling + online stuff is a big part of what makes One Medical great and Amazon is quite good at that.
  - gniv 4y ago
    Interesting that you mention the European system in a positive light, since I didn't have that perception before moving here. But now that I am in France I see it. Doctolib is amazing. I used to have One Medical and it was nice although I didn't use it to its full potential. But Doctolib, by dent of being adopted by virtually every doctor and facility here, is on another level.
    - skinnymuch 4y ago
      I believe a majority of Americans want universal health care nowadays. Capitalism is the problem in the US.
- sitkack 4y ago
  I used it, but will transition away. They kept ratcheting down the time a doctor can see with the patient and increasingly make each visit "special" so they can charge $250 for a 25 minute session. I already didn't like it, I like it even less now.
- paxys 4y ago
  One Medical is a primary care clinic, not a replacement for insurance. They will accept your insurance same as any other doctor. They have a bunch of locations and a decent sized staff. Their selling point is quick (sometimes same day) appointments and quick/cheap lab services.
- dimal 4y ago
  It's very convenient to be able to book visits next day from an app. If you don't have any significant illnesses, maybe the convenience is worth it, but the medical care I got there was atrocious. I went in with a serious complaint and was just told "there's not much you can do about that" (turned out to be completely untrue). My provider repeatedly wrote prescriptions wrong. Over and over and over. And she would often forget what I told five minutes after I said it. Even though she was supposed to be my PCP, she seemed completely clueless about my conditions on every visit. My impression was that the providers are overworked and not able to really give patients the time and consideration needed.
- saddd 4y ago
  One Medical would write adderall scripts for people during the pandemic. I think they stopped, but idk I went back to using a regular psychiatrist. Pretty wild to think that nurse practicioners were prescribing schedule IIs. source: I got all of my adderall through them for nearly two years
- simonw 4y ago
  I'm really happy with it. The video visits are especially useful. Generally if you click "emergency video appointment" in the app you'll be in a video chat with a nurse practitioner in less than five minutes - often faster - no matter what time of day or night it is. One thing I've used that for is emergency prescriptions: say I'm traveling and I forgot to bring a medication, I usually find that a five minute video chat will result in the medication I need being made available at a pharmacy in whatever town I'm visiting.
- hamandcheese 4y ago
  I paid for it out of pocket, the experience is pretty great in theory, but it doesn't make up for the apparent doctor shortage in SF. It's very difficult to get appointments with an actual doctor without waiting months.
  - zeroonetwothree 4y ago
    is this specifically just SF? I haven’t had much trouble in the rest of the bay. I guess worst case you can drive a bit farther?
    - hamandcheese 4y ago
      Yes I think this is a problem for SF in particular.
- hot_gril 4y ago
  > if you have health insurance through your job, what does it provide that your insurance does not I have no idea, but it worked. I went to the One Medical office nearby, and the doctor fixed my problem. All communication after was through the One Medical iPhone app, which was pretty good for medical software but was still complicated for no reason. The relatively few things the doctor wanted to tell me were scattered around different menus, and I missed some. He could've just given me a piece of paper, and it would've been way easier.
- cvccvroomvroom 4y ago
  Yep. It's $200 to join. My insurance doesn't cover it but I can see an MD anytime. I can telehealth or visit my PCP through them usually next day. They have labs onsite. The wait is minimal, maybe 5 minutes.
- aridiculous 4y ago
  I’m not sure how much of it was luck, but my provider at One Medical tested for Lyme disease and caught it in me. My provider seemed to be extra cautious based on very limited clues and I think that is somewhat related to it being a premium product. Lyme can be super awful in some cases, especially when you’ve had it for a while without knowing. Given my experiences in other care systems, I don’t have a lot of faith they would have tested for it with any rigor.
- rdl 4y ago
  I use one medical even though my insurance doesn't cover anything through them, as they're vastly more convenient for scheduling, telehealth, Rx renewals, etc., and the doctors I've seen are all good. They also have locations in "good" cities in the US, and thus if I'm traveling there, I have a decent local option. Completely happy with it.
- ikiris 4y ago
  They were great with one major problem though, they don’t filter for science based medicine. They have all kinds of woo services they try to push like chiro, crystals, aroma, etc. If you can get through the scammy stuff they’re pretty good though for the convenience
- sgtnoodle 4y ago
  My employer pays for my membership. I use them for primary care and for getting blood labs drawn. They're just like any other in-network clinic, except they try to provide an above-average experience. They bill your insurance, and you're still on the hook for copays. I suspect that they're more likely to write off stuff that insurance rejects rather than bill you, but all I know is I've directly paid them maybe $40 over the last 3 years. Their clinics are comfortable and pleasantly decorated. Their front desk workers are all friendly and happily tackle clerical issues like tracking down external lab orders in other networks' systems. Their app is about as meh as any other, but their scheduling system is actually usable with plenty of available appointments. For labs in particular, I can just drop in without an appointment and be done in 15 minutes. All the phlebotomists I've had have been skilled and empathic. I was able to get a 12-lead ECG there, too. Their video sessions are very easy and convenient, and I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes or so. They aren't really going to solve any problems unless you just need an obvious prescription filled, but it's very comforting to be able to get a quick opinion from a random nurse practitioner. It's a nice way to help decide whether or not a problem is worth a trip to urgent care.
swyx 4y ago
whatever happened to the old Amazon- Berkshire Hathaway deal that was going to disrupt the pharma retail industry? did it fall apart? edit: ah looks like yes https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/01/04/haven-the-amazon-berkshire-jpmorgan-venture-to-disrupt-healthcare-is-disbanding-after-3-years.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/01/04/haven-the-amazon-berkshi...
- duxup 4y ago
  > One key issue facing Haven was that while the firm came up with ideas, each of the three founding companies executed their own projects separately with their own employees, obviating the need for the joint venture to begin with, according to the people, who declined to be identified speaking about the matter Man, tanked their own venture.
  - grouchomarx 4y ago
    imagine the egos at each of these firms are so wild that nothing would ever get done collaboratively
    - duxup 4y ago
      I was thinking along the lines of whatever benefits team or HR had no interest in the actual venture and just hijacked it for their own purpose and thus sank the venture.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  Yeah, it is really a shame. It would be great to see some new competition in the pharmacy benefit managers and pharmacy sector
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    Managed care organizations (health insurance companies) earn 2% to 5% profit margins. Not sure what was in it for JPMorgan, Amazon, and Berkshire, who already earn better profit margins. If they want to go vertical the whole way, then retail pharmacies are also not a money maker (see Walgreens’ figures, and CVS pre Caremark and Aetna merger). Then there is getting into the provider side, such as employing doctors and owning and operating hospitals. This side has more margin, but is very liability heavy and very risky to get into. And Kaiser Permanente already does the entire healthcare vertical, but even they are not able to offer measurably lower premiums. The biggest margins are in pharmaceuticals, but that requires billions of dollars in investment and many years to develop, all for what? At the end, you might as well sell your own medicines at a high margin. I feel like a lot of the costs in medicine have to do with liability, and without tort reform, there is not much any business can do about costs.
livinglist 4y ago
Didn’t this happen in Jul 2022? https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/amazon-shells-out-39b-primary-care-startup-one-medical https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/amazon-shells-o...
- ryanburk 4y ago
  this is announcing the closing of the deal (late last month)
codewiz 4y ago
Old news (February 22nd).
- nexus7556 4y ago
  Even older, this was announced last year.
lolinder 4y ago
Discussed here just over a week ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34899188 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34899188
- jonas21 4y ago
  And here 8 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32178643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32178643
  - consumer451 4y ago
    Just today I noticed the "Past" link on posts which shows us most of these. (look above) > hide | past | favorite | 21 comments Has that always been here? https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Amazon%20Buys%20One%20Medical&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Amazon%20Buys%20One%20Medical&... edit: to answer my own question, looking at archive.is, "Past" has been around since at least 2019. This site is so minimal and yet I never clicked that link even though I spend way too much time here. How strange.
    - macintux 4y ago
      You’re in good company: dang himself once forgot that link was there. There’s also a “past” link in the top bar that allows you to look through the most popular stories from previous dates, so I’d suspect it’s all a bit confusing to most users.
  - jkaplowitz 4y ago
    The news 8 months ago was that it was agreed that this acquisition would happen, subject to the usual approvals and closing conditions. The news in late February was that the acquisition had finally been completed. Those two stories are not the same but of news. However, today’s link is truly a re-submission of the late February item.
smcleod 4y ago
Companies as big as Amazon should not be allowed to buy other companies.
- kekkidy 4y ago
  [dead]
- dotBen 4y ago
  Should companies as big as Google not be allowed to buy startups? That's going to go down well here... /s
  - smcleod 4y ago
    I don't think they should be allowed to, they're already too big, too powerful and not regulated enough.
- thfuran 4y ago
  Companies 10% as big as Amazon probably shouldn't generally be allowed to buy other companies.
  - smcleod 4y ago
    Absolutely. Just like we need no billionaires - we need no privately owned, for-profit mega-corps. People need to get out of this very American idea that this aggressive style of capitalistic corporate monopolisation has worked well for the world.
    - skinnymuch 4y ago
      This makes sense to me based on my reading of how things have fared since 1917.
- dnissley 4y ago
  I disagree, companies should all have the same rights regardless of their size.
tedunangst 4y ago
This is a storyline from Industry season 2 right?
bmitc 4y ago
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Optimal_Persona 4y ago
I work in public mental health and earlier today got my weekly Becker Hospital Review email, which contained info about the Federal Trade Commission issuing a statement expressing privacy concerns about the merger. Not sure whether these FTC statements are routine whenever global megacorps gobble up smaller companies, or whether they're issued based on past performance of the companies in question. "The Federal Trade Commission issued a statement Feb. 27 warning Amazon and One Medical that it must keep healthcare data safe and is prohibited from using it for advertising or marketing purposes. Amazon said it would not share One Medical patients' personal health information to sell other Amazon products, and the FTC said the company must uphold that statement. 'Companies that fail to abide by the commitments and representations they have made to consumers can violate Section 5 of the FTC Act,' the FTC wrote. The FTC also said both companies must make it clear on how they will use protected health information as defined by HIPAA, as well as how Amazon will use One Medical patient data for purposes 'beyond the provision of healthcare.' Amazon completed its $3.9 billion acquisition of virtual and in-person primary care company One Medical on Feb. 22." Becker - https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/disruptors/ftc-warns-amazon-one-medical-to-keep-healthcare-data-private.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/disruptors/ftc-warns-a... FTC Statement in full - https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2210191amazononemedicalkhanslaughterwilsonbedoya.pdf https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2210191amazonon...
- V__ 4y ago
  > Companies that fail to abide [...] can violate Section 5 of the FTC Act I'm sure the fine will be a real deterrent. Just like the fines have deterred Amazon to stop their anti-union practices. I wonder if we will ever see some antitrust measures ever again, or if it is just going to be a free for all from now on.
  - godsfshrmn 4y ago
    Just look at GoodRx recently to see how this veiled this threat is
    - DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
rngname22 4y ago
Founder already has a new medical startup aimed at bringing the same benefits of One Medical to poorer people.
- mikercampbell 4y ago
  That makes me feel a little better.
- jimkleiber 4y ago
  FYI: https://galileohealth.com/ https://galileohealth.com/
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  They’re both $200ish a year. What distinguishes them from each other in this regard?
  - minitoar 4y ago
    idk about the new thing but OneMedical’s per-visit costs were quite high.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - verteu 4y ago
    OneMedical bills your insurance, so you're responsible for buying insurance plus all copays and deductibles. It looks like Galileo offers many services with no insurance required: https://galileo.helpscoutdocs.com/article/55-i-dont-have-insurance-can-i-still-use-galileo https://galileo.helpscoutdocs.com/article/55-i-dont-have-ins... Q: I don't have insurance, can I still use Galileo? A: Yes! Your monthly or yearly membership fee will cover all the care you receive within the Galileo app.
- renewiltord 4y ago
  I see One Medical - $199/yr ($144 first year) Galileo - $249/yr (or $348 paid monthly, or $45 single visit) Is there something else in the pricing that makes Galileo cheaper for poorer people?
deleted 4y ago
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charlieflowers 4y ago
I'm trying to sign up now. The "Next" button after entering mailing address is disabled. Anyone else having that issue? Wonder if maybe they are no longer taking sign ups?
gregshap 4y ago
Amazon is really going to keep making big splashy healthcare investments until they hit one big, and I think they will hit one big.
wonderwonder 4y ago
Amazon is laser focused on becoming the worlds first science fiction mega-corp. Was thinking earlier today that with Blue Origin and Space-X and Artemis the US has a legitimate space industry. The future is right next door now.
- dylan604 4y ago
  and which SciFi story with a mega-corp have you consumed where the mega-corp wasn't the antagonist?
  - wonderwonder 4y ago
    regretfully none. But then I have always pictured the future as the city in the opening from blade runner.
    - rzzzt 4y ago
      OCP's Detroit hits closer to home for me. No flying restaurants so far.
  - grogenaut 4y ago
    The Troy Rising series by John Ringo has a megacorp / howard hughes type main character. So that's one.
  - astrange 4y ago
    What does that mean other than an SF author wrote those words in a story?
    - dylan604 4y ago
      life imitating art in this case would not be a good thing is the meaning. in scifi the megacorp is typically a villain, so having a real life megacorp being a villain is not something i'm looking forward to, and yet the OP was equating Amazon as a scifi like megacorp. are you really unable to make the connection of why i'm asking why the comparison could be more ominous than good?
firstSpeaker 4y ago
Amazon is reaching out into more areas. I think they are the only big tech with a hand into so many different verticals.
deleted 4y ago
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245 points by synergy20 4y ago

Has anyone have experience with One Medical? For example, if you have health insurance through your job, what does it provide that your insurance does not?

98codes 4y ago
One Medical is basically a conglomeration of doctor's offices with an app that allows for easy scheduling, remote visits, chat, and other stuff.
- Iwan-Zotow 4y ago
  Yep! Basically, Uber/Lyft for PCP
SmellyPotato22 4y ago
I have one medical. Basically the value proposition for me is that its easier interface to the whole medical system. Finding a primary care physicians can be done in like 5 minutes. Stuff like scheduling appointments, virtual visits, vaccines, tests and what not through the app is super easy. IDK if it will get mainstream adoption but to me it takes the edge off seeking medical care. Also their clinics are nice and in convenient places.
skullone 4y ago
If it's anything like BetterHelp, you'll just be scheduled to the first available, lowest cost provider who get paid half or less the market rate for professional care. And knowing Amazon, they'll innovate newer ways to make it a dystopian dehumanizing process that leaves all parties with less care, less money, except for the shareholders.
- nexus7556 4y ago
  I think OP is asking about current experiences not what you think Amazon will turn it into.
  - celdon25 4y ago
    I was a OneMedical member for 10 years. They definitely became that way before Amazon took it over.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
nexus7556 4y ago
My employer has a relationship with them. They have multiple locations at our various offices. I have on in my building. The convenience is unbeatable, both the on site services and convenience of the app. I always can get an appointment. That being said over the last five years the quality of care has gone down. The good practitioners have left, and now there is quite a bit of turnover. I’ve had to change PCPs 4x in the last three years.
8ytecoder 4y ago
I signed up after learning that a simple visit takes weeks to get an appt if you’re a new patient. At the time one medical offered same day appt and it was a big deal. Some of this has now been matched by insurance providers providing video visits for free, medical providers (like Kaiser/Shutter) and urgent care centres providing quicker appts. I now stay with them because it’s still easier to get all the usual stuff done through them, their offices are nicer and cleaner and having a reachable PCP really helps navigating the American system for me when I need a specialist consult or a prescription filled. During the early days of Covid it was super easy to get tested at their offices as well.
dcow 4y ago
One medical is just a medical group like any other. They aren't insurance, they bill your insurance. They also charge a subscription fee which is not covered by insurance for membership. Out of membership you get access to their convenience services like mobile consultation. Most of these conveniences have been incorporated into big insurance players platforms by now, because they save money. They do so by trying to preempt you going to the clinic and starting to rack up charges when a video nurse could have told you to just take a chill pill. They also claim to offload much of the administrative and annoying health insurance work so you don't have to worry about it. I found this to be mostly true, but again becoming replicated by improved UX on the insurance providers sites. The other nice thing about them being a group is they have multiple clinics scattered around bigger metro areas. You can go to any site kinda like you would an urgent care. I don't use One Medical any more because I no longer live in an area where they exist. They were a good customer experience for the basics. I will note that they are really just a triage replacement and the people you see are often less experienced. And they don't do specialists, really. If you get into anything complicated you're dealing with the general medical system as normal (annoying trips to random floors in big research hospitals to do weird tests that don't really tell you anything other than you already know type of vibe, not really knowing if you're in network or not because nobody can tell you a straight answer type of vibe, not knowing up front what classifies as a co-pay and what's a covered benefit, why is "hospital" lab work billed more than clinic lab work and why does that mean my insurance covers less of it and I have to pay extra more type of vibe). They're not vertically integrated like a Kaiser.
NegativeLatency 4y ago
used it about 5 years ago in SF, switched to finding my own PCP since I moved elsewhere now that amazon owns it I wouldn't go near it
imroot 4y ago
I had BetterHelp through my old job, and used their telemedicine feature...until they realized that I didn't live in a state that they had an "official" location in, so, they cancelled my membership (ironically enough, when I used their telemed offering, I was in a state that they had offices in, just not near me!) ...only to reactivate it again when my employer questioned why, and have them cancel it again two weeks later. I haven't even tried to use them or look at their offerings after being de-platformed on repeat for the longest part of a year until my employer dropped them.
todd3834 4y ago
Before at home Covid tests were available this was the most convenient way to get a test without waiting in line
todd3834 4y ago
In my opinion the best thing they offer is little to no wait time even for same day appointments. Beats urgent care experience by a massive amount.
- tjohns 4y ago
  This is the big reason I originally signed up with them. Being able to reliably schedule same/next-day appointments is such a breath of fresh air. You might not see your specific primary doctor if it's short notice, but I've always been able to see someone, and they'll have access to all your records. Also, having my health record available regardless of which doctor, office, or city (within their network) I'm visiting is nice.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  My providers urgent care never has much of a wait time anyway.
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
I'll echo some of the other responses. I'm a One Medical customer - started with my previous company, then when I left my employer I decided to still pay the annual subscription fee (was basically $100 with a promo for folks who just left an employer). So far I've been a huge fan. Things like scheduling appointments, getting labs done, having an easy back-and-forth with a provider when you just have a question and nothing major, is way, way, way better with One Medical than with any of my previous doctors. I will challenge a bit another commenter's statement that "Most of these conveniences have been incorporated into big insurance players platforms by now" - while that's true, other insurance corp apps have generally been absolutely abysmal. One Medical's app is generally excellent IMO. Of course, the big question has to do with quality of the practitioners. I've found that I really like my doctor at One Medical, but he is only recently out of training, so not sure how long he'll stick around
onemedthrowww 4y ago
I would not have understood the benefits until I moved to DC from a smaller town. In my home town, it was relatively trivial to find a competent GP who took my insurance. In the much larger market of DC, totally the opposite! Which led me to using OneMedical for a while. The main advantages they had a few years ago were: - Multiple locations (including near my apt and work place) - easy to schedule appointments on short notice with either my PCP (if available) or anyone else on their staff (if not) - Very easy to communicate with doctors/etc online, generally their portal was "not shitty" - Appointments always started on time The downside was the extra cost (trivial compared to the hassle it was to deal with other services) and the staff being a bit more impersonal -- they really hurried you out of there, which is the flip side of always starting on time. :) I've actually kept up my account even though I see a different PCP these days, since it felt like it could be useful as a fallback on short notice. I'm thinking about cancelling now that Amazon has bought them, though.
s1mon 4y ago
A previous employer paid for it, now I pay for it out of pocket. The convenience of scheduling routine things or setting up a video visit with a provider is more than worth it. There are many things where you might have considered going to an ER or making an appointment with your PCP, but instead you can have a quick video call which can help triage/understand what you're dealing with. A few months ago I got a stomach bug traveling, and was able to do a quick video visit and get a script for antibiotics sent to a local pharmacy even though I was out of my home state. The ease of that one event is well worth the annual fee. There was no additional charge for the video visit. During the height of covid, I got some other respiratory thing that I thought might be covid and I was extremely stressed. I did a video visit with a provider who was working (from home) while sick with covid. I thanked her for her service and started to cry.
- LUmBULtERA 4y ago
  That sounds great, though I can schedule quick video visits with Kaiser too. This does not sound unique.
  - dataflow 4y ago
    Can you get Kaiser in any state?
    - paulocal 4y ago
      for $199/year?
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    Yeah this has become common with many insurers and health conglmomerates.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  Sutter Health offers this with no annual fee.
  - 4y ago
nimih 4y ago
I had access to--and used--OneMedical through my employer-provided health insurance for a couple years. The way to understand it isn't as an alternative to your health insurance, but as a care-provider network with a nice app and a bunch of offices (at least in the Bay Area, where I lived at the time) that you pay a subscription to. Overall, my experience was pretty good (with the caveat that this is all in the context of the US healthcare system, so the bar is rather low): I was happy with my PCP[0] and the overall level of care provided, and scheduling appointments (with my PCP or otherwise) was always really easy and straightforward[1]. I also never personally ran into any weird/scammy billing issues, something which I have encountered with some frequency at other healthcare providers[2]. That all being said, my work provided access to OneMedical as a perk, and I'm not sure if I'd pay the membership fee out of my own pocket if I ever move back to a city where they offer coverage (even setting aside concerns about its acquisition by Amazon). [0] n=1, and I'm a white dude without any serious chronic illnesses or ailments, so take with the obvious grains of salt [1] I was basically always able to schedule appointments within a week, and usually same- or next-day, which IME is unheard of in the American medical system in general. As a contrasting example, when I tried to find a PCP about a year prior to enrolling in OneMedical, but still living in the same metro area, most scheduling offices told me that there would be a 3-6 month waiting period for scheduling a routine physical, assuming they were taking new patients in the first place. [2] Again, n=1, so I doubt this is really a generalizeable data point.
1auralynn 4y ago
It's paying $100-200 a year to be able to get labs done pretty much immediately, schedule appointments easily, sit in waiting rooms that aren't depressing, and have a PCP and office workers that are nice to you and treat you like a human. Oh, and the video appointments are amazing. One time I had a really terrible UTI and got antibiotics within the hour from my phone.
mattknox 4y ago
I've been a customer of theirs for at least 12 years, I think (I have an entry in my password manager from about that long ago, and I might have had an account before that). It's been fantastic, in general: I can get a phone consult anytime I've wanted one, and can get in to see a doc with pretty short notice. They are good at giving me the referrals I ask for, even if they are weird (eg., after listening to Chamath Palihapitiya talk about Coronarary Arterial Calcium scans, I got curious and wanted one, and 1med got me the referral I wanted/dealt with insurance, etc.). About the only downside is that it's a bit harder to keep a very consistent GP, in that 1med seems to have a fair amount of turnover. I don't know if it's hard to keep a consistent GP in other contexts, as I pretty much didn't go to doctors between the time I left high school and when I started using 1medical.
reissbaker 4y ago
Echoing other comments here, I use One Medical and am an extremely happy customer — I pay the yearly subscription out of pocket. Online scheduling + video calls at any time with their staff make it well worth it, and they have offices in many cities and states so I've even seen doctors and gotten bloodwork + vaccinations done while traveling (domestically in the US). My experience with their doctors has generally been top notch as well, including one doctor visually and immediately diagnosing a family hereditary condition that had taken my sister years to get diagnosed through other doctors. And since they have so many offices, I can pretty much always get a next-day appointment in the Bay Area. I've never had to wait a memorable amount of time once I show up, and they can do a lot of labwork immediately onsite if you need or want it without additional scheduling or needing a return trip. I've traveled and lived abroad, and IMO One Medical clears even the relatively high European-style medical system quality bar. Happy for them that they got acquired by Amazon, since the scheduling + online stuff is a big part of what makes One Medical great and Amazon is quite good at that.
- gniv 4y ago
  Interesting that you mention the European system in a positive light, since I didn't have that perception before moving here. But now that I am in France I see it. Doctolib is amazing. I used to have One Medical and it was nice although I didn't use it to its full potential. But Doctolib, by dent of being adopted by virtually every doctor and facility here, is on another level.
  - skinnymuch 4y ago
    I believe a majority of Americans want universal health care nowadays. Capitalism is the problem in the US.
sitkack 4y ago
I used it, but will transition away. They kept ratcheting down the time a doctor can see with the patient and increasingly make each visit "special" so they can charge $250 for a 25 minute session. I already didn't like it, I like it even less now.
paxys 4y ago
One Medical is a primary care clinic, not a replacement for insurance. They will accept your insurance same as any other doctor. They have a bunch of locations and a decent sized staff. Their selling point is quick (sometimes same day) appointments and quick/cheap lab services.
dimal 4y ago
It's very convenient to be able to book visits next day from an app. If you don't have any significant illnesses, maybe the convenience is worth it, but the medical care I got there was atrocious. I went in with a serious complaint and was just told "there's not much you can do about that" (turned out to be completely untrue). My provider repeatedly wrote prescriptions wrong. Over and over and over. And she would often forget what I told five minutes after I said it. Even though she was supposed to be my PCP, she seemed completely clueless about my conditions on every visit. My impression was that the providers are overworked and not able to really give patients the time and consideration needed.
saddd 4y ago
One Medical would write adderall scripts for people during the pandemic. I think they stopped, but idk I went back to using a regular psychiatrist. Pretty wild to think that nurse practicioners were prescribing schedule IIs. source: I got all of my adderall through them for nearly two years
simonw 4y ago
I'm really happy with it. The video visits are especially useful. Generally if you click "emergency video appointment" in the app you'll be in a video chat with a nurse practitioner in less than five minutes - often faster - no matter what time of day or night it is. One thing I've used that for is emergency prescriptions: say I'm traveling and I forgot to bring a medication, I usually find that a five minute video chat will result in the medication I need being made available at a pharmacy in whatever town I'm visiting.
hamandcheese 4y ago
I paid for it out of pocket, the experience is pretty great in theory, but it doesn't make up for the apparent doctor shortage in SF. It's very difficult to get appointments with an actual doctor without waiting months.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  is this specifically just SF? I haven’t had much trouble in the rest of the bay. I guess worst case you can drive a bit farther?
  - hamandcheese 4y ago
    Yes I think this is a problem for SF in particular.
hot_gril 4y ago
> if you have health insurance through your job, what does it provide that your insurance does not I have no idea, but it worked. I went to the One Medical office nearby, and the doctor fixed my problem. All communication after was through the One Medical iPhone app, which was pretty good for medical software but was still complicated for no reason. The relatively few things the doctor wanted to tell me were scattered around different menus, and I missed some. He could've just given me a piece of paper, and it would've been way easier.
cvccvroomvroom 4y ago
Yep. It's $200 to join. My insurance doesn't cover it but I can see an MD anytime. I can telehealth or visit my PCP through them usually next day. They have labs onsite. The wait is minimal, maybe 5 minutes.
aridiculous 4y ago
I’m not sure how much of it was luck, but my provider at One Medical tested for Lyme disease and caught it in me. My provider seemed to be extra cautious based on very limited clues and I think that is somewhat related to it being a premium product. Lyme can be super awful in some cases, especially when you’ve had it for a while without knowing. Given my experiences in other care systems, I don’t have a lot of faith they would have tested for it with any rigor.
rdl 4y ago
I use one medical even though my insurance doesn't cover anything through them, as they're vastly more convenient for scheduling, telehealth, Rx renewals, etc., and the doctors I've seen are all good. They also have locations in "good" cities in the US, and thus if I'm traveling there, I have a decent local option. Completely happy with it.
ikiris 4y ago
They were great with one major problem though, they don’t filter for science based medicine. They have all kinds of woo services they try to push like chiro, crystals, aroma, etc. If you can get through the scammy stuff they’re pretty good though for the convenience
sgtnoodle 4y ago
My employer pays for my membership. I use them for primary care and for getting blood labs drawn. They're just like any other in-network clinic, except they try to provide an above-average experience. They bill your insurance, and you're still on the hook for copays. I suspect that they're more likely to write off stuff that insurance rejects rather than bill you, but all I know is I've directly paid them maybe $40 over the last 3 years. Their clinics are comfortable and pleasantly decorated. Their front desk workers are all friendly and happily tackle clerical issues like tracking down external lab orders in other networks' systems. Their app is about as meh as any other, but their scheduling system is actually usable with plenty of available appointments. For labs in particular, I can just drop in without an appointment and be done in 15 minutes. All the phlebotomists I've had have been skilled and empathic. I was able to get a 12-lead ECG there, too. Their video sessions are very easy and convenient, and I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes or so. They aren't really going to solve any problems unless you just need an obvious prescription filled, but it's very comforting to be able to get a quick opinion from a random nurse practitioner. It's a nice way to help decide whether or not a problem is worth a trip to urgent care.

swyx 4y ago

whatever happened to the old Amazon- Berkshire Hathaway deal that was going to disrupt the pharma retail industry? did it fall apart? edit: ah looks like yes https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/01/04/haven-the-amazon-berkshire-jpmorgan-venture-to-disrupt-healthcare-is-disbanding-after-3-years.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/01/04/haven-the-amazon-berkshi...

duxup 4y ago
> One key issue facing Haven was that while the firm came up with ideas, each of the three founding companies executed their own projects separately with their own employees, obviating the need for the joint venture to begin with, according to the people, who declined to be identified speaking about the matter Man, tanked their own venture.
- grouchomarx 4y ago
  imagine the egos at each of these firms are so wild that nothing would ever get done collaboratively
  - duxup 4y ago
    I was thinking along the lines of whatever benefits team or HR had no interest in the actual venture and just hijacked it for their own purpose and thus sank the venture.
s1artibartfast 4y ago
Yeah, it is really a shame. It would be great to see some new competition in the pharmacy benefit managers and pharmacy sector
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  Managed care organizations (health insurance companies) earn 2% to 5% profit margins. Not sure what was in it for JPMorgan, Amazon, and Berkshire, who already earn better profit margins. If they want to go vertical the whole way, then retail pharmacies are also not a money maker (see Walgreens’ figures, and CVS pre Caremark and Aetna merger). Then there is getting into the provider side, such as employing doctors and owning and operating hospitals. This side has more margin, but is very liability heavy and very risky to get into. And Kaiser Permanente already does the entire healthcare vertical, but even they are not able to offer measurably lower premiums. The biggest margins are in pharmaceuticals, but that requires billions of dollars in investment and many years to develop, all for what? At the end, you might as well sell your own medicines at a high margin. I feel like a lot of the costs in medicine have to do with liability, and without tort reform, there is not much any business can do about costs.

livinglist 4y ago

Didn’t this happen in Jul 2022? https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/amazon-shells-out-39b-primary-care-startup-one-medical https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/amazon-shells-o...

ryanburk 4y ago
this is announcing the closing of the deal (late last month)

codewiz 4y ago

Old news (February 22nd).

nexus7556 4y ago
Even older, this was announced last year.

lolinder 4y ago

Discussed here just over a week ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34899188 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34899188

jonas21 4y ago
And here 8 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32178643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32178643
- consumer451 4y ago
  Just today I noticed the "Past" link on posts which shows us most of these. (look above) > hide | past | favorite | 21 comments Has that always been here? https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Amazon%20Buys%20One%20Medical&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Amazon%20Buys%20One%20Medical&... edit: to answer my own question, looking at archive.is, "Past" has been around since at least 2019. This site is so minimal and yet I never clicked that link even though I spend way too much time here. How strange.
  - macintux 4y ago
    You’re in good company: dang himself once forgot that link was there. There’s also a “past” link in the top bar that allows you to look through the most popular stories from previous dates, so I’d suspect it’s all a bit confusing to most users.
- jkaplowitz 4y ago
  The news 8 months ago was that it was agreed that this acquisition would happen, subject to the usual approvals and closing conditions. The news in late February was that the acquisition had finally been completed. Those two stories are not the same but of news. However, today’s link is truly a re-submission of the late February item.

smcleod 4y ago

Companies as big as Amazon should not be allowed to buy other companies.

kekkidy 4y ago
[dead]
dotBen 4y ago
Should companies as big as Google not be allowed to buy startups? That's going to go down well here... /s
- smcleod 4y ago
  I don't think they should be allowed to, they're already too big, too powerful and not regulated enough.
thfuran 4y ago
Companies 10% as big as Amazon probably shouldn't generally be allowed to buy other companies.
- smcleod 4y ago
  Absolutely. Just like we need no billionaires - we need no privately owned, for-profit mega-corps. People need to get out of this very American idea that this aggressive style of capitalistic corporate monopolisation has worked well for the world.
  - skinnymuch 4y ago
    This makes sense to me based on my reading of how things have fared since 1917.
dnissley 4y ago
I disagree, companies should all have the same rights regardless of their size.

tedunangst 4y ago

This is a storyline from Industry season 2 right?

bmitc 4y ago

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Optimal_Persona 4y ago

I work in public mental health and earlier today got my weekly Becker Hospital Review email, which contained info about the Federal Trade Commission issuing a statement expressing privacy concerns about the merger. Not sure whether these FTC statements are routine whenever global megacorps gobble up smaller companies, or whether they're issued based on past performance of the companies in question. "The Federal Trade Commission issued a statement Feb. 27 warning Amazon and One Medical that it must keep healthcare data safe and is prohibited from using it for advertising or marketing purposes. Amazon said it would not share One Medical patients' personal health information to sell other Amazon products, and the FTC said the company must uphold that statement. 'Companies that fail to abide by the commitments and representations they have made to consumers can violate Section 5 of the FTC Act,' the FTC wrote. The FTC also said both companies must make it clear on how they will use protected health information as defined by HIPAA, as well as how Amazon will use One Medical patient data for purposes 'beyond the provision of healthcare.' Amazon completed its $3.9 billion acquisition of virtual and in-person primary care company One Medical on Feb. 22." Becker - https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/disruptors/ftc-warns-amazon-one-medical-to-keep-healthcare-data-private.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/disruptors/ftc-warns-a... FTC Statement in full - https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2210191amazononemedicalkhanslaughterwilsonbedoya.pdf https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2210191amazonon...

V__ 4y ago
> Companies that fail to abide [...] can violate Section 5 of the FTC Act I'm sure the fine will be a real deterrent. Just like the fines have deterred Amazon to stop their anti-union practices. I wonder if we will ever see some antitrust measures ever again, or if it is just going to be a free for all from now on.
- godsfshrmn 4y ago
  Just look at GoodRx recently to see how this veiled this threat is
  - DaiPlusPlus 4y ago

rngname22 4y ago

Founder already has a new medical startup aimed at bringing the same benefits of One Medical to poorer people.

mikercampbell 4y ago
That makes me feel a little better.
jimkleiber 4y ago
FYI: https://galileohealth.com/ https://galileohealth.com/
ceejayoz 4y ago
They’re both $200ish a year. What distinguishes them from each other in this regard?
- minitoar 4y ago
  idk about the new thing but OneMedical’s per-visit costs were quite high.
- deleted 4y ago
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- verteu 4y ago
  OneMedical bills your insurance, so you're responsible for buying insurance plus all copays and deductibles. It looks like Galileo offers many services with no insurance required: https://galileo.helpscoutdocs.com/article/55-i-dont-have-insurance-can-i-still-use-galileo https://galileo.helpscoutdocs.com/article/55-i-dont-have-ins... Q: I don't have insurance, can I still use Galileo? A: Yes! Your monthly or yearly membership fee will cover all the care you receive within the Galileo app.
renewiltord 4y ago
I see One Medical - $199/yr ($144 first year) Galileo - $249/yr (or $348 paid monthly, or $45 single visit) Is there something else in the pricing that makes Galileo cheaper for poorer people?

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charlieflowers 4y ago

I'm trying to sign up now. The "Next" button after entering mailing address is disabled. Anyone else having that issue? Wonder if maybe they are no longer taking sign ups?

gregshap 4y ago

Amazon is really going to keep making big splashy healthcare investments until they hit one big, and I think they will hit one big.

wonderwonder 4y ago

Amazon is laser focused on becoming the worlds first science fiction mega-corp. Was thinking earlier today that with Blue Origin and Space-X and Artemis the US has a legitimate space industry. The future is right next door now.

dylan604 4y ago
and which SciFi story with a mega-corp have you consumed where the mega-corp wasn't the antagonist?
- wonderwonder 4y ago
  regretfully none. But then I have always pictured the future as the city in the opening from blade runner.
  - rzzzt 4y ago
    OCP's Detroit hits closer to home for me. No flying restaurants so far.
- grogenaut 4y ago
  The Troy Rising series by John Ringo has a megacorp / howard hughes type main character. So that's one.
- astrange 4y ago
  What does that mean other than an SF author wrote those words in a story?
  - dylan604 4y ago
    life imitating art in this case would not be a good thing is the meaning. in scifi the megacorp is typically a villain, so having a real life megacorp being a villain is not something i'm looking forward to, and yet the OP was equating Amazon as a scifi like megacorp. are you really unable to make the connection of why i'm asking why the comparison could be more ominous than good?

firstSpeaker 4y ago

Amazon is reaching out into more areas. I think they are the only big tech with a hand into so many different verticals.

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