Amazon Inc. is buying an operator of primary-care clinics, a significant expansion that will help the tech giant offer medical services to a large pool of employers and individuals and that underscores its sweeping ambitions in health care, The Wall Street Journal reported. The $3.9 billion deal, including debt, for 1Life Healthcare which operates a primary-care practice under the name One Medical, is the first major acquisition announced during the tenure of Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy. Amazon will gain access to a practice that operates more than 180 medical offices in 25 U.S. markets and works with more than 8,000 companies to provide health benefits to employees, including in-person and virtual care. That adds significantly to a smaller service Amazon launched in 2019 for which it had signed up a limited number of employers in the last year. The deal adds momentum to the push by technology and retail giants to make inroads into the nation’s $4 trillion health care economy. That push, along with new technology and medical discoveries, has fueled growth of medical care outside of hospitals, and patients now more regularly seek care in more convenient and lower-cost settings. In addition, demand for telehealth during the pandemic increased the use of virtual care. Yet the health care industry, which is governed by state and federal regulations and an array of companies and providers operating in myriad ways, has proven notoriously difficult to disrupt. An earlier attempt by the company to expand into health care fizzled after three years.
