Amazon on Tuesday announced that its health care service, Amazon Care, has launched telehealth services nationwide and will expand in-person care to 20 cities later this year. The company also announced it signed on three new companies for its health care services.

Amazon Care is coming to all 50 states

Background

Amazon Care was first offered exclusively to Amazon employees in Seattle in 2019. In September 2020, the company expanded access to all Amazon employees in Washington state and then expanded telehealth services to its employees and other employers in all 50 states.

Amazon Care is doubling down—will that be enough? Watch these 3 factors.

Amazon Care offers both virtual and in-person care. People can access virtual care through the Amazon Care app, which allows them to communicate with providers through videos and messages. For its in-person service, a medical professional is dispatched to a patient's home or office to perform exams, tests, or vaccinations.

Last year, Amazon announced it had reached deals with Precor and Hilton to provide its Amazon Care service.

Amazon Care launches nationwide, adds 3 new companies

In a press release, Amazon announced that its telehealth services are now available throughout the United States, in response to the "increased demand to bring care to patients' homes—whether that be virtually or through in-home care" brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, in-person services will be expanded later this year. Currently, in-person care is available in Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Arlington, Va.

Amazon previously announced its intention to expand its primary care service to several tentative cities, and the company has now confirmed that the service will be expanded to 20 new cities, including San Francisco, New York City, and Chicago.

Eventually, the company will expand in-person services to all 50 states, Amazon Care executive Babak Parviz said in June 2021.

Amazon also announced it has signed deals to offer Amazon Care services to three new companies—Silicon Labs, TrueBlue, and Whole Foods Market.

"Patients are tired of a health care system that doesn't put them first. Our patient-centric service is changing that, one visit at a time," said Kristen Helton, director of Amazon Care. "We've brought our on-demand urgent and primary care services to patients nationwide. As we grow the service, we'll continue to work with our customers to address their needs." (Amazon release, 2/8; Beals, The Hill, 2/9; Landi, Fierce Healthcare, 2/8)