It's a big business deal that's raising lots of questions about patient
privacy. Amazon plans to buy the primary care group one medical in
the nearly $4 billion deal, adding to the growing list of the tech
giant's acquisitions and efforts to expand its footing in the healthcare
industry. One medical is a membership based primary care practice
with nearly 200 locations across the country.
And privacy advocates are already voicing concerns about Amazon controlling
data about someone's online purchases and streaming content as well
as their healthcare records. For more on this, Erin Broad win health
tech reporter at Axios is with us, Erin. It's great to have you here
and as you well know, this is only the latest of Amazon's healthcare
ventures and acquired the online pharmacy company Pill Pack. Back
in 2018. It launched its own Amazon pharmacy in 2020.
What does acquiring one medical represent for Amazon? As you said
Amazon was already a powerful force in the healthcare space. This
deal turbo charges all of their existing efforts in this space. It's
really about three things the way the way I think about it, It's
about scale. It's about hybrid primary care, and it's about entering
the Medicare advantage market. So you already have lots of one medical
customers who are saying they're going to cancel the memberships.
Because of this Amazon deal. They want no parts of this because of
Privacy concerns. What, if any impact might that have on this acquisition
on this deal, So I think that's a really important concern. Amazon
does have a spotty track record when it comes to consumer privacy.
I do want to point out, though, that because it is acquiring one
medical, which is a medical provider, one medical has to abide by
HIPPA Health Information Protection Act, So it has a lot of protected
health information. But that shouldn't be violated, for for any reason
that I know of in terms of
Amazon's tracker group, though there are instances in which the company
has given broad swaths of its global workforce latitude to tap into
consumer data. I mean 44% of US residents use prime that is a crazy
amount, especially considering that the largest healthcare system
in America to only has access to approximately 1% of US residents.
Amazon knows what you're buying what pills you take, and it can guide
your decisions to buy and when and will probably use those in terms
of healthcare. Let's talk more about that and sort of take a big
picture. Look at this. Is there a trade off between people having
both convenience and privacy?
Yeah, I think there definitely is a trade off. I think it's very
easy to sit here and say, you know, I don't want this. I don't want
Amazon in my life or I don't want Google in my life or I don't want
apple in my life. The fact of the matter is we use these companies
for so much and they are so ever present in our lives that saying,
Okay, because of this decision, I'm no longer going to have this
tech company present in my life. I'm just going to cut them out.
I just don't think that's particularly doable. Um remember a lot
of my friends, for example, when Google acquired Fitbit they said
they were gonna you know, abandon their Fitbits. And to this day
I know zero people who have done
That's marketing one. Oh, one right. There's always this disconnect
between what people say they're going to do and what they actually
will do. This acquisition is part of a larger trend of big tech companies
trying to expand their footprint into health care. What accounts
for that and what's the expected impact? I still remember. It was
just a couple years ago, when Tim Cook and Apple said the Apple,
Apple's biggest impact on society was going to be in healthcare,
and I think that's kind of what set all these big tech companies
on this big race to get into this space healthcare is affordable.
In dollar industry. It is huge.
Google is here. Apple is here. Amazon is here and so many other big
tech companies, I would say Prior to this acquisition, there was
a really tight race between all these companies as to who was going
to dominate and healthcare. The deal hasn't closed yet, So I'm not
trying to get ahead of myself here but post acquisition. I mean,
I think this puts Amazon in the clear lead. It's definitely going
to set all these other companies efforts to work speed as well. But
again, I'd say Amazon does have a little bit of a lead. The Amazon
and one medical say this deal will make things more convenient for
those using healthcare services. Amazon also
Says this acquisition will help make health care more accessible
to people who
Haven't had access to it. So we'll Amazon's expansion here make health
care more accessible, more more broadly available. I'd love to say
the answer is, yes, but unfortunately I do not have any current evidence
to support that theory. I say that only because Amazon's efforts
in health care so far have been largely directed at the worried well
and so have one medical. They largely serve people who are fairly
affluent, fairly wealthy and want
What they call concierge medical care. I will say Amazon had one
effort that was targeted at the working class. It had a partnership
still has a partnership with a company called Crossover Healthcare.
And so they have clinics set up with them near Amazon warehouses.
It remains to be seen how this deal will impact those. I definitely
will have my eyes peeled for that, But I don't think I don't see
this deal is about equity or accessibility to be to be honest.
All right, Erin. Broad win covers health tech issues for Axios. It's
great to speak with you. Thanks for your time. Thanks so much for