Amazon Launches Health Centers to Boost Employee Access to Care
Through its collaboration with Crossover Health, Amazon will pilot convenient health centers near its fulfillment centers in Texas to ease access to care for its employees.
Source: Thinkstock
By - Amazon and Crossover Health launched a healthcare pilot to establish local, convenient health centers near Amazon fulfillment centers and boost access to care for employees and their families.
The Neighborhood Health Centers will provide many different services, such as full-spectrum acute, chronic, and preventive primary care, in addition to prescription medications and vaccinations.
Additionally, the health centers will also offer behavioral health services, physical therapy, chiropractic care, health coaching, and care navigation to specialty referral services. The first location will be available in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and will feature extended hours to accommodate employee work schedules.
“Prevention and early detection are essential to remaining healthy, and the importance of primary care cannot be understated. I appreciate seeing the collaboration between Amazon and Crossover Health to ensure their employees have access to quality and convenient health care services,” Rep. Michael Burgess, MD, R-Texas, said in a statement.
“I am also pleased that this pilot program will run in the Dallas/Fort Worth area,” he added.“The health and wellness opportunities Amazon is providing its employees should spark inspiration for other companies to follow suit in providing similar benefits.”
Through this initial pilot program, Amazon expects to establish 20 health centers in five cities across the US, which will improve access to care for over 115,000 associates and their families in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; Louisville, Kentucky; Detroit, Michigan; and San Bernardino/Moreno Valley, California.
Depending on the pilot success, Amazon officials stated it will look to roll out similar facilities in other cities and states in the near future.
“Across the US, an increasing number of patients do not have easy access to a primary care physician and instead utilize emergency or urgent care options, which is not only more expensive for patients, but also overlooks important preventative care opportunities,” said Darcie Henry, Amazon’s vice president of human resources, in a statement.
“We want to solve that for our employees, and the launch of these new Neighborhood Health Centers will provide a range of quality primary care services for employees across the country,” she added.
Crossover Health, which specializes in primary care services, will fully operate and staff the Neighborhood Health Centers.
Crossover Health’s technology platform allows patients to efficiently start care online and then transition to in-person care as needed.
“We are proud to collaborate with Amazon to support the health and wellness of Amazon’s employees. Crossover Health believes that exceptional primary care is central to continued health and well-being,” said Scott Shreeve, MD, CEO and co-founder of Crossover Health, in a statement.
“Now it’s more important than ever to make care available through multiple channels and across the full continuum,” he added. “Our advanced primary care model will serve as vital infrastructure to deliver expanded access to care in-person and online to meet the needs of Amazon’s employees and their families.”
As part of their care initiative, Amazon recently announced a new family care benefit through Care.com, which provides each of its US employees up to 10 days of subsidized emergency backup child or adult care between now and October.
Amazon employees will only have to pay a co-pay of $25 per day for in-center childcare, or $5 per hour for in-home child or adult care. And the company will cover over 90 percent of the cost of the service.
Additionally, Amazon will invest several million dollars to offer this new benefit over the next few months.
“We’ve heard from our employees that access to affordable family care, for both children and adults, is particularly challenging during the COVID-19 crisis and we are committed to support them in this unprecedented time,” Beth Galetti, Amazon senior vice president of human resources, said in the press release.
“This new child and adult care option will add to the comprehensive benefits we provide to all regular, full-time Amazon employees, including comprehensive health insurance, a 401(k) plan, and 20 weeks of paid maternity leave, among others,” she concluded.
