Amazon’s head of health services shares why consumers could be a disruptive force to the healthcare industry

Amazon’s head of health services shares why consumers could be a disruptive force to the healthcare industry Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer

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After years of secretive projects, leaked internal meeting notes, and industry speculation, Amazon is starting to talk more about its ambitions in healthcare.

In 2021, the retail and tech giant selected longtime company veteran Neil Lindsay to serve as the senior vice president of health services, sending a clear signal that it was doing more than dabbling. With every move, the healthcare industry took note, given Amazon’s track record of aggressive competition and disrupting traditional businesses.

It has made major acquisitions including pharmacy startup PillPack and primary care provider One Medical. It’s shut down others, like its homegrown primary care unit Amazon Care. Today, it’s focusing its strategy around three lines: virtual care through Amazon Clinic; Amazon Pharmacy; and its primary care business through One Medical.

On the sidelines of the HLTH conference in Las Vegas, Amazon’s Lindsay gave Endpoints News his vision for the company’s latest plans, though he downplayed how far the company has come. “People might see us as big, but we’re small in healthcare,” Lindsay said.

Amazon has big expectations riding on its healthcare strategy 

After many of Amazon’s moves — such as the August announcement that it had struck a major PBM deal — the stocks of competitors have fallen. Lindsay said he tries not to get distracted by those reactions.

Instead, he said he’s focused on empowering consumers to have more agency when it comes to healthcare by giving choices, including prices, making it convenient, and making care more continuous.

“This is the only industry where you do things, you don’t even know what it’s going to cost you,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay said he’s been surprised to see that instead of existing healthcare companies reacting negatively to Amazon’s strategy, he’s seen positivity from everyone from health plans to provider partners to startups. “There’s just this enthusiasm that we can help connect dots,” he said.

Amazon, for its part, has a lot of patience for the health services division to build its business, Lindsay said.

“There is a sense in Amazon that this is a valuable thing that we can do that’s valuable to folks,” Lindsay said. “It’s a good business too. It’s a difficult business because it’s complicated, but it’s big. And we think we can make a difference,” he added.

Amazon could be the company that transforms how consumers interact with their healthcare

But empowering those consumers isn’t a simple task in an industry that doesn’t always prioritize what those consumers want.

From Lindsay’s perspective, it’s providers who are in a tough spot. “There’s a reset that has to happen,” Lindsay said.

“I think about the providers in particular in that system who are at the crush point. They’re trying to make sure it’s a great experience for the customer and patient, but there are all of these other burdens because of the way it’s set up,” Lindsay added.

Amazon is betting the engagement it already has with consumers will make healthcare a more consumer-friendly experience.

“Customers are coming to look for healthcare solutions,” Lindsay said. “We need to make those more accessible to them on Amazon. And then also they do manage a lot of their life through Amazon. So if we can help make that easier to do, great.”

Taking the ‘simplistic view’ of healthcare

Lindsay’s been with Amazon for 13 years, leading businesses like Amazon Prime and marketing and, in the past, working on devices. Leading the health services team is Lindsay’s biggest foray into healthcare yet.

“My job is largely to help people who know a lot more than I do about any particular business and help them find a path to a mission,” Lindsay said, particularly when that business is complex.

Despite all the ways in which healthcare can be confusing, Lindsay decided to take a “simplistic view,” he said.

“That is, not worry too much about how to fit into the way it’s working, but ask, well, how can we make it work the way it should?” Lindsay said. Even though there’s no simple way to make that happen overnight, “What we can do is just find the things that should be a bit easier and knock them off one by one,” he added.

He noted that approach is how Amazon built other parts of the business.

“Yesterday’s innovation becomes today’s new normal,” Lindsay said.