By Arriana McLymore
NEW YORK, NY (Reuters) – More than a year after Amazon.com agreed to buy One Medical, an in-person and virtual primary care practice, the company is cutting the telehealth service’s price for a second time for Prime members.
Prime members can now add the virtual healthcare service to their subscriptions for an additional $9 per month or $99 annually, Amazon announced on Wednesday in a move to boost the platform’s subscribers. One Medical offers 24-hour virtual access to physicians, online appointment booking, medical records release, prescription renewals and specialist referrals.
Subscription fees are not mandatory to receive in-person medical services and the fees do not cover medical services.
Prime members can add up to five additional family members to their One Medical subscription for $6 per month for each family member. Prime subscriptions are $14.99 per month or $139 annually.
One Medical subscriptions typically cost $199 and since buying the company for $3.9 billion in 2022, Amazon has offered discounts with hopes that its 167 million U.S. Prime members will test out its telehealth offering. One Medical closed out 2022 with 836,000 members.
Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of health services at Amazon, said that Amazon’s telehealth efforts are “trying to make it easier [for patients] to get care, get medications and get things that will help them feel better.”
While both Amazon and other tech giants are exploring telehealth options for customers, privacy laws relating to healthcare have impeded rapid growth and adoption.
In July, Amazon offered Prime members One Medical subscriptions for $144 for their first year, compared to the $199 price tag of the annual, single member telehealth package. Amazon announced a similar deal in February for new One Medical customers, regardless of whether or not they were Prime members.
(Reporting by Arriana McLymore in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
