Kristen Helton, Director of Strategic Initiative at Amazon Care, talks about Amazon's initiatives in the health care industry and how companies are looking to offer the service as a new health benefit for employees.

Opening Bell

Amazon Expands Health Care Services Nationwide

So joining me now is Kristen Helton, general manager director at amazon Kristin. Can you just kind of break down how amazon care actually works and how it's helping patients actually access care? Absolutely. Good morning. Uh, amazon care is our hybrid healthcare delivery service. So start with a convenient chat or video visit. Mm hmm. We answer those and visits in minutes really quickly in the cases where we can't solve the patient's issue will then send a nurse right to the home. And so this service is said, we started with amazonians. We piloted this in Seattle. We've seen lots of cold, we've seen some more complex care as well and really high experience ratings from those patients. So now we're bringing it as you mentioned, amazon care more broadly across the country. What's the feedback been from, from people and patients actually utilizing the program? This fact has been incredible. Uh, we're seeing 4.7 out of five in terms of ratings on average. Uh, our patients love the convenience, the fact that we bring care directly to the patient, whether they're in the home or at the office. Uh, it makes using that virtual first approach really makes it easy to get care in a convenient manner. The clinicians are all high quality, we say bar raising clinicians. And so we also get really great raving room about the clinicians who are providing, you know, amazon's hair model as we were kind of noting has been getting some attention from, from big names companies like Hilton, what kind of benefit, you know, does amazon care then provide, you know to employers here? Well, employers are top of mind for employers is employee employee wellness, especially during the pandemic, getting health care in a convenient and very accessible way to their employees to keep them safe and well is top of mind for employees. We're hearing a lot of XP excitement about the model, which is flexible. It allows us to bring the care to wherever the company's headquarters might be. So we're adapting our in person roadmap in light of the employer requests. So right now we're in cities like Seattle boston D. C. But as we bring on new enterprise customers were adapting those new city launches to meet the demand. You know, we have seen amazon investing quite decently in this kind of healthcare sector and in this kind of space, it acquired what prescription company delivery company pill pack in 2018, then that was kind of before launching the pharmacy in 2020 it created a fitness band and programs that integrate, you know, with Alexa into hospitals and senior living facilities. Why is amazon investing so much into health care in the industry and what's the future vision here? Well, at amazon, we really work back from our customers and what they tell us they're looking for. Uh and in each of those cases, you can see that there's a customer needs. So pill pack is their prescriptions halo, as you mentioned, is an activity monitor, amazon care, bringing the bringing health care directly to patients. And so we really work back. We don't work industry backward. We work customer backward and our phone on what are the specific needs. Uh So that has been our approach. When we get great customer feedback that say they love what we're doing, they want us to expand and that's exactly what we do. And that's the case here with amazon care. We're hearing from employers, They are excited about the service they want to see us in more cities. We brought it virtually so we can serve our virtual services, can serve members nationwide. Uh and then we're rolling out up 20 more cities this year is our plan to just continue to bring that uh in person service. Um, two more patients, you know, as amazon continues to kind of focus around healthcare and wellness. There are obviously kind of reports over the last week really around sources saying that amazon could be in talks to purchase peloton to kind of further amazon's footprint and healthcare. Could the company just broadly here benefit from acquiring an an exercise equipment maker. I think health care is uh, is not just limited in terms of what we go to the doctor office and see today. I think I won't speculate on any of this. I'm really focused on what amazon care is here to offer, but we do hear from patients that they want more out of their health care services uh and health illness nutrition or all things that are interesting to customers. But we'll continue to work back from what they're asking us, what they're looking for and delivering a really high caliber, top notch service. I really appreciate your insight and context and the growth that you're seeing a amazon and with amazon Care Kristen Helton, general manager and director at Amazon Care.