One Medical, a membership-based primary care service that promises customers “24/7 access to virtual care, is being acquired by Amazon (AMZN) for $3.9 billion. One Medical offers in-person healthcare services and virtual care, along with an app and round-the-clock access to on-demand medical services over video.
Amazon has been aiming for a push into the healthcare industry for a few years now, previously acquiring PillPack in 2018 and launching a digital pharmacy. But as skepticism of big tech continues to rise, One Medical’s consumers and pundits alike are not happy about the purchase, with some worried about a lesser quality of care, others to potential privacy violations. Many on Twitter labeled it a cultural monopoly overall.
"Why is @Amazon acquiring @OneMedical bad news?"
Let's explore.
1. Horizontal integration at Amazon scale of a company that now has the right to access my medical records under HIPAA opens up a huge problem for abuse.
— Corey Quinn (@QuinnyPig) July 21, 2022
in a just world this would be illegal https://t.co/08QnhUX6Ut
— Casey Johnston (@caseyjohnston) July 21, 2022
Yet another reason to cancel this overpriced service, which was helpful during the early days of the pandemic but has become increasingly unusable. https://t.co/CSgYoBnmRT
— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) July 21, 2022
Another pertinent concern was Amazon’s use of One Medical’s customer data in a post-Roe world.
One Medical currently has healthcare locations in Georgia, Texas, Ohio, and Arizona — all states we can expect will prosecute pregnant people for abortions or adverse pregnancy outcomes. So you can maybe see why Amazon having their medical data is, perhaps, not going to be safe! https://t.co/oK1CkbwcSY
— Robyn Swirling (@RSwirling) July 21, 2022
Many overall are saying they’re going to cancel the service, mourning having to start over to find a primary care provider.
https://twitter.com/keya_chatterjee/status/1550139791534133251?s=20&t=DzWo9TMSt7rVUKaGew7mzQ
Whether Amazon will stay away from customer data remains to be seen. In a statement, One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin said “there is an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients, providers, and payers. We look forward to innovating and expanding access to quality healthcare services, together.”
