Haven Health is dead; Long Live Amazon Care
Why I am excited about my future primary care overlord, Amazon
Haven Health is dead; long live Amazon Care. By now, everyone has heard that the eCommerce giant is expanding into healthcare with its telehealth service’s launch called Amazon Cares. Every telehealth VC, executive, or founder probably screamed at the top of their lungs or threw a heavy object at their widescreen monitor, which they now have to replace — by ordering off Amazon (Cha-ching Bezos!). I am very excited about this development and cannot wait to see what Amazon can do to break up some health systems’ monopolistic stranglehold on primary care services.
In my experience, navigating primary care has been an exercise in patience, especially as parents with young children. Walk-in appointments are next to impossible, with odds worse than those for winning the Power Ball lottery. Little kids are magnets for illnesses. They get sick all the time and usually unannounced. It’s not like your kid sends you a calendar invite letting you know the days they will be sick so that you can rearrange your workweek. Workaholic coworkers that refuse to take sick days making everyone else ill are all too familiar with our work-crazed country. Then there are seasonal illnesses that seem to hit everyone at the same time.
In most cases, you will need something more than OTC medication, which requires a visit to the doctor’s office. We just end up going to the Urgent Care center owned by the same provider paying more than the regular copay. It is at this intersection where I think Amazon Care will find its sweet spot. It is more of a threat to the Minute Clinics (CVS) and Wal-Mart Clinic than the big established healthcare providers like IU Health. I can even see a scenario where it might make more sense for IU Health to offload all its low-value care encounters to Amazon Care to tackle Primary Care’s capacity crunch. They can both function symbiotically caring for the same patient and deliver the right care at the right time for the right price.
