Amazon Prepares to Strategically Disrupt Healthcare Market

Thomasnet.com  |  Staff writer  |  April 10, 2019

Amazon has recently taken a series of significant steps to strategically position itself to disrupt the U.S. health sector.

The retail giant has a number of advantages that will accelerate its entry into the complex health market and potentially cause existing members of the sector to re-evaluate their core offerings.

U.S. healthcare is ripe for disruption. Drug prices and other costs remain high despite being a priority in Washington; intermediaries including pharmacy benefit managers, drug wholesalers, and distributors are driving up costs; and the industry is notorious for its waste and inefficiency. Most notably, healthcare has failed to keep pace with changing customer expectations, being neither responsive nor customer-focused.

In a detailed examination of Amazon’s health strategy, authors at CBInsights commented that “customer experience has been an afterthought in almost every part of healthcare, and is reflected in the poor NPS scores [Net Promoter Scores, which relate to customer satisfaction] across the board.”

Disrupting the Challenging Healthcare Market

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced his intention to compete in healthcare while acknowledging the complexity of the challenge.

“[As hard] as it might be, reducing healthcare’s burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort,” he said. “Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner’s mind, and a long-term orientation.”  Read the full article