Amazon Confirms Job Cuts at One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy
In an internal memo shared with Healthcare Dive, Amazon Health Services SVP Neil Lindsay confirmed that the company is cutting hundreds of jobs across One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy. The goal of these cuts is to “realign” resources to better meet the divisions’ goals. However, Amazon has not disclosed the exact number of employees or the specific roles that will be impacted by the cuts.
Affected employees will receive financial support and benefit continuation, and they will also have the opportunity to apply for new roles within Amazon. It’s important to note that Amazon is not implementing a hiring freeze and will continue to hire providers and employees for One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy.
The news of these job cuts comes after Business Insider reported on the planned announcement. In the internal memo, Lindsay expressed regret that employees had learned about the cuts externally before receiving official communication.
Despite these job cuts, CEO Andy Jassy recently expressed optimism about the growth of Amazon’s pharmacy and One Medical offerings. He highlighted the momentum and rapid growth of Amazon Pharmacy during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
Amazon completed its acquisition of primary care chain One Medical in February for $3.9 billion. Additionally, the company announced discounted One Medical memberships for Prime users in November, which Jassy stated had seen a “very good take-up” among customers.
Amazon’s pharmacy business has also been expanding through initiatives such as generic drug subscriptions for Prime members and manufacturer coupons for select brand name medications. Last year, the company extended these coupons for pricey insulin brands and diabetes medications.
These job cuts are not the first for Amazon. In early 2023, the company announced over 27,000 role eliminations company-wide. Later that year, Amazon Pharmacy laid off 80 employees, and several healthcare roles were dissolved when Amazon Care shut down its hybrid care offering.
Overall, these job cuts reflect Amazon’s ongoing efforts to realign resources and optimize its operations in the healthcare sector.