Important Issues

Amazon is coming for traditional medicine.

The e-commerce giant announced this week it aims to offer AmazonCare across the country in the near future, and will start trialing expansion in the DC area. While the focus on the short term is telemedicine, in-person care may be next.

First up is the virtual part of AmazonCare. According to the Washington Business Journal, the company will offer its AmazonCare virtual healthcare offerings to all employees. Currently, only Seattle employees have access to the telemedicine offerings, which include virtual medical visits, request in-person visits, and order prescription deliveries.

There are few details on what exactly Amazon will offer to outside companies, or even its own employees. Services could be built internally or via merger with existing telemedicine/hybrid medical offerings. Having a corporate headquarters in Arlington allows Amazon to have dedicated staff locally when healthcare offerings become available.

MSDC remains concerned with nationwide telemedicine and virtual medical offerings, as it allows local health departments less oversight of the local practice of medicine. This is different from the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which permits reciprocity on physician license oversight. As Dr. EW Emanuel stated in his testimony before the Committee on Health last week, MSDC supports a regional compact between DC, Maryland, and Virginia to permit easier cross-state licensure, especially in telemedicine.