This transcription is provided by artificial intelligence. We believe in technology but understand that even the smartest robots can sometimes get speech recognition wrong.

 Today in Health it, the story is Amazon Care quietly expands as I told you they would. My name is Bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week in Health it a channel dedicated. To Keeping Health IT Staff Current and Engaged Health Lyrics is my company. I develop a quarterly state of the Health IT report and I can deliver that to your team.

These insights can help your leadership, your sales team, even your development teams. Stay ahead of the emerging trends in healthcare it. For more information, go ahead and shoot me a note. At Bill at this week in health it.com. Alright, here's today's story, and I told you this was coming, it, it, it's pretty obvious to me, you know, Amazon is a trial and error kind of company.

You know, ab test things fail fast kind of organization. So they are, uh, making some betts, seeing how it goes, expanding a little bit and we will see how this plays out. This is from Stat News. Amazon Cares medical partner quietly files to operate in 17. More states. Alright, before we get into this, let me, let me tell you what Amazon Care is.

So Amazon Care is the program that they offer to their employees in the Washington market, in the Washington state market. And what it is, is essentially a really cool digital tool to do scheduling and a way to interface with their medical partner. The medical partner is called Care Medical. And that's what this is all about.

This story is about, and they interface with them and they're able to schedule an appointment. That appointment can be essentially at the office, can be at your home, could be in a lot of different places. It is essentially a concierge level service for an employer to their employees. It is a significant benefit, and from what I understand from people who have experienced it and people who have used the tools and been a part of it.

They say it is exceptional. So this is why it's something to be aware of is something to, uh, understand what it means to the market. Alright, let's go into the story. The clinical provider for Amazon Care, the tech giants virtual first medical platform is quietly gearing up to do business in 17 additional states.

Now, let's just be real clear, I think they're just expanding it right now to offer it to more Amazon. Locations, of course, Amazon locations are in a lot of different states and a lot of different metro areas, which means, you know, once they get this model working for themselves, they will be able to launch off of that and offer it to additional employers.

I don't think this is a direct to consumer play. I think it is a direct to employer play, and I think it's a first step for Amazon to get into essentially an insurance practice of sorts where they are managing care for employers. Anyway, let me go on in the Story. Care Medical appears to contract exclusively with Amazon to provide staff for its virtual and in-person medical services.

While it has no website and lists only a PO box, you get the picture. They go, they go into the deep throat, clandestine. Activities that they're doing and how they picked up on this story. Amazon declined to comment on care medical's expansion into other states and Care Medical did not respond to a request for comment.

Let's see, it goes on. Last summer, care Medical hired Sunita Misra, a former executive at Providence St. Joe's. System to serve as President. Mishra had previously built the Seattle based health system's virtual care platform. A few weeks later, Amazon expanded Amazon care from being available exclusively to employees in Seattle to being available to staff throughout Washington state.

Everyone looked at the explosion of Haven and said, oh look, they're, they're done. And I said, nah, that, that's the wrong way to read this. The right way to read this is, uh, Amazon was a very different culture than JP Morgan. Very different culture. Then, uh, Berkshire Hathaway, but Amazon was not gonna give up on this.

Amazon is going after healthcare in a lot of different ways. Uh, but, but cherry picking within healthcare. Alright, so, you know, what's the so what on this? I. Let me start by saying, if I were a provider today, I would be sitting down with employers trying to figure out a direct to employer model. I, I would do that either through a payer partner or I would be doing that just through direct conversations.

Find out what tools they need, what data they need, what, what kind of services, what kind of costs and price points are they looking for, and figure out how to deliver those services to them. You know, this is one of what I think are two models that have the potential to upend healthcare's current balance of power.

This model, someone steps up and provides employers a product that provides what they are looking for. A product that lowers costs, really lowers cost, and improves the experience for everyone in the equation. not only the employer and their challenges with the current healthcare models, but also the employee and the employee's family, right?

A great set of tools and, and easy access to care that they're looking for. This is a concierge level service. That will meet you in the office, at your home, wherever is convenient for you. Can you think of a, a benefit that's better than than this for an employee, and I have talked to some people who have experienced this, they're able to see the doctor get their medications that same day, deliver to their desk so that they can continue to work.

This is actually a true story that was shared with me from a former Amazon employee. They were getting on a plane. And they said, look, I, I need to see a doctor. They saw him that day. They got the medications that day, and they were able to get on the airplane that day. That's a real experience. That is a level of service that we don't normally experience.

This is a real benefit that makes for healthier employees, happy families, and empowered employers. Okay. There's a crowd out there that's gonna say, yeah, yeah, I, you know, bill, we hear these stories all the time. Many have tried, but few have succeeded. This is a hard code to break, and that is true. You know, it, it is true until it's not true.

And then there's all sorts of challenges, right? So somebody is gonna break the code when they break the code. You need to be ready to adapt very quickly. This is a real threat to providers and payers, and it should be interesting to watch. I recognize, I said two models. . . Um, this one's really out there and I've been sort of playing around with it in my head.

And the second model is, how about an Airbnb model for hospital beds? I've been thinking, why not? Once we start to figure out how to set up homes for higher levels of care, higher levels of acuity, why can't there be a managed, uh, service, a a, a platform company that steps up. And manages all those beds in that city.

You know, the company that has a thousand hospital rooms in a city, but has no hospitals. Think about the cost benefit in that scenario. You know, clearly there's a lot of hurdles to get through and a lot of things to figure out here, but the more I play around with this concept in my head, I really can see it in our future.

Anyway, I, I, I probably need to apologize. I did a ton of episodes today. I did three full length episodes. I'm a little tired, a little punchy, and so I had fun with this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Alright, that's all for today. If you know of someone that might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note.

They can subscribe on our website this week, health.com, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Apple, Google Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher. You get the picture. We are everywhere. We wanna thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders, VMware Hillrom, Starbridge Advisors, McAfee and Aruba Networks.

Thanks for listening. That's all for now.