Washington, D.C. (CNN) Amazon completed the acquisition of healthcare provider One Medical and its parent company in a $3.9 billion deal on Wednesday, hours after the Federal Trade Commission said it would not challenge the purchase but that regulators were still investigating potential competitive and consumer harm of the transaction.
The groundbreaking deal will turn the e-commerce giant into a primary medical care provider with access to more than 200 brick-and-mortar doctor’s offices, along with approximately 815,000 One Medical members, according to that company’s latest financial statement.
The One Medical deal would also allow Amazon to expand its telehealth services and build valuable relationships with hospital systems, industry analysts said.
Amazon said Wednesday that One Medical will offer new customers $55 off annual memberships for a limited time.
“We are on a mission to make it significantly easier for people to find, choose, pay for and connect with the services, products and professionals they need to get and stay healthy, and come together with One Medical is a major step forward on that journey,” said Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, in a release. “One Medical has set the bar high for what should be a quality, convenient, and affordable primary care experience. We are inspired by their people-centric, technology-centric approach and excited to help them continue to grow and serve more patients. “
But while Amazon may complete the deal without the imminent threat of an FTC antitrust suit, the agency is still investigating the acquisition and may still challenge the deal after the fact.
“The FTC’s investigation into Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical continues,” FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said. “The committee will continue to look at potential harm to competition created by this merger, as well as potential harm to consumers that may arise from Amazon’s monitoring and use of sensitive health information from One Medical.”
The FTC plans to warn Amazon that it may close the deal at its own risk, an agency official said. Known as a “pre-consumption warning,” the FTC began sending such letters to merging companies in 2021 in response to a spate of proposed deals that threatened to overwhelm regulators’ investigative capacity.
The warning highlights the ongoing legal risk to Amazon and the potential concerns driving the FTC probe. Concerns include not only the potential for Amazon to entrench its economic dominance, but also fears that the acquisition of valuable health data could lead to the misuse of that information for other purposes, such as targeted advertising or e-commerce, the agency’s official said. desk.
Amazon’s deal to acquire One Medical follows its 2018 purchase of online pharmacy service PillPack, which later became Amazon Pharmacy. Separately, Amazon partnered with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway to provide better health care and lower-cost insurance to employees and families at the three companies, and potentially others. That effort, called Haven, ended in 2021.
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