Retail giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has agreed to buy primary care organization One Medical in a cash deal valued at $3.9 billion.
One Medical’s services as a direct-to-consumer membership-based primary care practice involves the use of a mobile app that helps schedule appointments, renew prescriptions and message with a provider. As of March 31, One Medical had about 767,000 members and a presence in 188 medical offices, according to its first-quarter earnings release.
San Francisco-based 1Life Healthcare Inc. is One Medical’s parent company.
Amazon’s deal reiterates its view that health care needs “reinvention,” according to Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services.
“We see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” Lindsay said in a press release about the deal. “Together with One Medical’s human-centered and technology-powered approach to health care, we believe we can and will help more people get better care, when and how they need it.”
One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin, who is expected to remain in the role once the deal is completed, noted that, “there is an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients, providers, and payers.”
And this is not the first time a megadeal has occurred between popular consumer brands and health care giants. Pharmacy chain giant CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) acquired Aetna (NYSE: AET) in 2017, and recently announced its post-acute transitions pilot for Aetna members in select locations in 2023.
Amazon back in 2018 partnered with two corporate titans in forming a new company with Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).
While these deals have yet to directly touch skilled nursing, the moves have kept providers on their toes for what may be next.
“The experience of being a consumer at Walmart or CVS is better than the experience of being a consumer at a hospital,” Adam Blumenthal, managing partner at Blue Wolf Capital Partners, said at an industry conference in July 2018. “They don’t put you in a waiting room at Walmart. If they did, people would walk out.”
Blumenthal noted that industry-watchers tend to pay attention to the ways that major companies can shake up the health care industry with their sheer volume.
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