Amazon pushes into primary care with $3.9 billion One Medical deal

Amazon has signed an agreement to acquire One Medical, a San Francisco-based network of primary care providers, in a $3.9 billion deal, the company announced Thursday.

Amir Dan Rubin, One Medical CEO, said in a press release that there is “an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients, providers, and payers,” and that the deal will allow both companies to innovate and expand access to quality health care services.

“The opportunity to transform health care and improve outcomes by combining One Medical’s human-centered and technology-powered model and exceptional team with Amazon’s customer obsession, history of invention, and willingness to invest in the long-term is so exciting,” Rubin said in the release.

Amazon has been edging into the health care field for several years. It bought online pharmacy PillPack for $753 million in 2018, and started Amazon Care, its own urgent and primary care service based on virtual sessions and home visits, to treat its employees in 2019, according to a New York Times article.

The company has been expanding its physical clinics, according to the article, but the deal with One Medical, which serves 8,500 employers, bolsters its presence in health care.

Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said in a press release that the company believes health care is “high on the list of experiences that need reinvention.”

“Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy – we see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” he said.

With One Medical’s “human-centered and technology-powered approach to health care,” Amazon said it believes the company “can and will help more people get better care, when and how they need it.”

“We look forward to delivering on that long-term mission,” Lindsay continued. “We love inventing to make what should be easy easier and we want to be one of the companies that helps dramatically improve the healthcare experience over the next several years.”

In 2020, One Medical went public at $22.07 a share, according to the Times article, and shares peaked last year at $58.70. Now, Amazon will buy One Medical for $18 per share in an all-cash transaction, according to the release. Completion of the transaction is subject to closing conditions, including regulatory approval and approval by One Medical's shareholders.

References:

• Amazon and One Medical Sign an agreement for Amazon to acquire One Medical. https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-and-one-medical-sign-agreement-amazon-acquire-one-medical. Published July 21, 2022. Accessed July 22, 2022.
• Amazon to acquire One Medical clinics in latest push into health care. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/business/amazon-one-medical-deal.html. Published July 21, 2022. Accessed July 22, 2022.