Amazon’s healthcare push in the last few months has spanned from AI infrastructure and tools to tighter health system partnerships via One Medical.
Since Oct. 1, the company has made major moves even as it trims corporate headcount and navigates the risks of being a core digital utility for providers. Here’s what you need to know about Amazon’s healthcare strategy, pulled together from moves since Oct. 1:
Amazon’s AI strategy
Amazon has been developing wearable health AI since its acquisition of startup Bee. Bee, which Amazon agreed to buy in July, makes a wrist-worn device that ambiently records daily interactions, learning from patterns and habits to generate personalized insights. The AI draws on calendar data, conversations, emails and health metrics from Apple’s HealthKit.
Health systems are also leaning on AWS tools for analytics and operations. Little Rock, Ark.-based Baptist Health has reported time and cost savings from using Amazon QuickSight, an AI-powered business intelligence platform. The 11-hospital system shortened development cycles and reduced labor costs by adopting an Arcadia data analytics dashboard application that leverages QuickSight.
In November, Amazon announced plans to invest up to $50 billion to expand AI and supercomputing capabilities for federal agencies — a move it framed as supportive of healthcare research and pharmaceutical breakthroughs. The tech giant intends to break ground on the data centers in 2026, adding 1.3 gigawatts of AI and supercomputing capacity for AWS U.S. government customers.
“We’re giving agencies expanded access to advanced AI capabilities that will enable them to accelerate critical missions from cybersecurity to drug discovery,” Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said in a Nov. 24 news release. “This investment removes the technology barriers that have held government back and further positions America to lead in the AI era.”
Amazon revealed the investment the same day President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on government agencies to collaborate with the private sector on AI for scientific advancements. The company said the project also supports the White House’s AI Action Plan to accelerate AI adoption.
Also in November, PwC announced plans to collaborate with AWS on an initiative aimed at transforming how healthcare organizations manage and improve revenue cycle operations. The collaboration will make PwC’s revenue cycle managed services available on AWS, and the companies plan to build AI agents and tools designed to help healthcare organizations improve financial performance, streamline operations and enhance the patient financial experience.
Health system partnerships
Health systems across the U.S. are expanding partnerships with Amazon’s One Medical, citing improved access to primary care, patient growth and lessons learned from digital-first, consumer-oriented care delivery.
On Jan. 1, Chicago-based Rush University System for Health launched its partnership with Amazon One Medical to expand access to virtual — and in-person — specialty care. Since the partnership began, the three-hospital system has received more than 20 specialty care referrals from One Medical patients in the Chicago market, all for in-person visits.
Also beginning Jan. 1, New York City-based Montefiore Health System expanded its collaboration with Amazon One Medical, becoming the primary specialty care partner for the company’s Manhattan patients. The agreement builds on a partnership that previously focused on Westchester County and one Manhattan site that opened last spring. Beginning early in the new year, Montefiore will offer coordinated specialty care for Amazon One Medical primary care patients at 15 Manhattan locations, along with its existing One Medical site in Westchester County.
In October, Amazon One Medical and Cleveland Clinic opened their first collaborative primary care office in Northeast Ohio. The new facility began serving patients Oct. 29, marking One Medical’s first office in the region as part of the health system partnership.
In 2025, Cleveland Clinic, Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (Tacoma, Wash.) shared insights with Becker’s about their partnerships with One Medical. Each system pointed to access as a central driver behind continued investment in the collaboration.
Pharmacy innovations
Amazon Pharmacy has continued to focus on convenience, pushing prescription access closer to the point of care and shortening time to therapy.
In November, Amazon Pharmacy announced plans to partner with Experity, a healthcare technology platform, to let patients order prescriptions during their urgent care visit and receive same-day delivery in select markets. The collaboration will allow urgent care patients to access automatic manufacturer discounts and order medications for direct-to-door delivery through Amazon’s platform.
The partnership marks Amazon’s first integration of its prescription services into a digital health platform focused on urgent care. The stated goal is to reduce delays between diagnosis and treatment and improve medication adherence.
In October, Amazon announced plans to roll out pharmacy kiosks at One Medical clinics that will dispense medications immediately after appointments. The kiosks are set to debut in December at One Medical locations in the Los Angeles area — including Downtown and West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Long Beach and West Hollywood — with more clinics expected to follow nationwide.
Layoffs
Amazon laid off about 14,000 white-collar employees as it shifts more resources toward AI. The tech giant is reducing its corporate workforce by roughly 4% and giving most affected employees 90 days to find another internal role.
“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones),” said Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, in an Oct. 28 blog post. “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
Web outage
An Amazon Web Services outage on Oct. 20 began in its Northern Virginia data center region due to problems with the system that manages web address lookups for one of its main databases. The disruption temporarily disrupted operations at Boston-based Tufts Medicine and knocked out several major websites and apps, including Snapchat, Facebook and Fortnite. The issue triggered downstream impacts across multiple AWS services, including EC2, Lambda and CloudWatch, before being resolved later that afternoon, according to the AWS status page.
Expanded telehealth offerings
In October, Amazon One Medical introduced a pay-per-visit telehealth service for children ages 2 to 11. The offering allows parents and guardians to get virtual consultations for common pediatric conditions without insurance or a membership.
The service covers treatment for a range of conditions, including pink eye, head lice, eczema, contact dermatitis, fungal rashes, bug bites, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, fifth disease, roseola, poison ivy and diaper rash. It also supports renewals for EpiPens and asthma medications.
