E-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly trimming its staff headcount by hundreds in its healthcare unit, including One Medical chain of doctors' offices and Amazon Pharmacy.
The exact number of employees affected by this decision remains undisclosed. However, an estimate from a person cited by Business Insider suggested that up to 400 employees could face job losses.
Amazon said that the latest job cut round comes as part of its broader cost cutting initiative.
Through the latest move, the e-commerce company is also intensifying its efforts to streamline business operations.
According to the report, Amazon's leadership has directed One Medical to significantly cut its operating losses and has identified an additional $100m in savings to be achieved this year.
Citing Amazon Healthcare Services executive Neil Lindsay’s letter to affected employees on 6 February, Reuters said: “We are realigning some resources to help accelerate our efforts. We will continue hiring providers and investing in teams and technology that will help us provide high-quality and accessible care to more people.”
One Medical is further targeting a reduction in its fixed operating costs from 41% to 20% of total revenue by 2028 and aims to lower the cost per patient visit to $322 in 2024, down from $372 in 2023.
One Medical, which was acquired by Amazon in February 2023 for nearly $3.9bn, is a membership-based primary care provider, specialising in the combining human-cantered design and technology to deliver affordable and accessible quality care.
This healthcare division currently has operations across 19 major US markets and partners with over 8,500 companies to extend health benefits to their workforce.
One Medical members can access a range of physical and round-the-clock virtual healthcare facilities, including, including chronic care management, on-site labs and programmes for preventive care, and mental health care.
One Medical is a membership-based primary care provider, which was acquired by Amazon in February 2023.
