Dive Brief:
- Amazon is working to add mental healthcare to its slate of primary care services through a partnership with teletherapy startup Ginger.
- The tech giant’s healthcare program for employers, Amazon Care, plans to include Ginger’s behavioral healthcare services as an optional add-on for clients, according to a live website on the service. Services include on-demand visits with behavioral health coaches, licensed therapists and psychiatrists.
- The new service hasn’t launched yet, according to Business Insider, which cited sources familiar with the matter. Amazon currently offers virtual and in-person primary care visits for clients in select areas of the U.S., along with prescription delivery.
Dive Insight:
The behavioral health add-on will allow Amazon care to coordinate between its own care teams and Ginger therapists and psychiatrists, Amazon said on the website. Amazon’s primary care providers already treat common mental health concerns, but care coordinators will refer patients to in-network behavioral health specialists through Ginger for more moderate and acute concerns.
Amazon has been hustling to build out Amazon Care, which it launched a few years ago as a pilot program for Seattle-area employees but has since expanded to a large swath of the country.
Expansion of its in-person benefit, where Amazon Care dispatches nurse practitioners to a patient’s home or office if their needs can’t be resolved over video, has lagged, however, in a tight labor market.
Amazon announced plans in July to acquire primary care network One Medical for nearly $4 billion. If the deal closes, Amazon will add almost 190 clinics, a subscription telehealth service, an electronic health record and contracts with thousands of employer clients to its healthcare business.
Ginger is a big partner for Amazon as the company looks to double down on the mental health component of its care delivery arm. The 12-year-old company merged with mindfulness and meditation app Headspace last fall to create a mental health company valued at around $3 billion and with a combined reach of 100 million consumers, according to the combined entity.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
