In a partnership announced Tuesday, Amazon One Medical has agreed to refer all of its primary care patients in South Florida who need follow-up to Baptist Health South Florida specialists and outpatient facilities.<\/p>\n
The partnership between the South Florida health system and Amazon\u2019s medical arm benefits both entities, and some of the 900,000 patients who access virtual and in-person primary care through their Amazon Prime membership. The partnership becomes effective as of Aug. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are two innovative organizations looking to advance the way healthcare is delivered,\u201d said Nancy Batista-Rodriguez, chief executive officer of Baptist Outpatient Services. \u201cHealthcare is not easy to navigate, and we have specialized institutes where their patients will be able to get follow-up care.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Palm Beach County, the arrangement will see Amazon One Medical patients referred to experts across multiple specialties<\/a>, as well as referred for inpatient needs to three area hospitals \u2014 Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Bethesda East, and Bethesda West. In Broward, Amazon One Medical patients will eventually be referred to specialists at the new Baptist Health South Florida hospital and medical offices in Sunrise<\/a> or its outpatient specialty care centers in Plantation and Pembroke Pines. And in Miami-Dade, Amazon One members will be able to transition to Baptist Health specialists in cancer, brain, spine, heart and vascular, and orthopedics throughout the county.<\/p>\n Overall, Baptist Health has 12 hospitals, 200 outpatient centers, urgent care facilities, and physician practices spanning Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, which will become referral sites for One Medical patients.<\/p>\n \u201cOne Medical sees patients who are relatively healthy, so the majority will end up at a diagnostic facility or a specialist\u2019s office rather than at our hospitals,\u201d Batista-Rodriguez said. \u201cThere will be direct communication between Amazon One Medical offices and our consumer access team, so when follow-up care is needed, our team will reach out to the patients.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon entered into the virtual\/primary care space in July 2022 when it bought One Medical, a hybrid in-person and virtual primary care organization. Now, Amazon Prime members can add One Medical memberships as a benefit at health.amazon.com\/prime for $9\/month or $99\/year, or purchase them at OneMedical.com. Membership covers access to One Medical\u2019s 24\/7 on-demand virtual care services, including video chats with licensed providers within minutes, and in-person primary care visits. One Medical also works with over 10,000 U.S. employers who sponsor membership fees as a benefit for their employees and dependents.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether, we\u2019re ensuring that every step of a patient\u2019s care journey, from routine visits to complex specialty needs, feels connected and intentional, advancing our shared mission to improve the patient care experience in the communities we serve,\u201d Christopher Saj, Miami District Medical Director at Amazon One Medical, said in a written statement.<\/p>\n One Medical has 18 active One Medical primary care physicians in South Florida seeing patients both in person and virtually. It also has seven offices in South Florida, including Coconut Grove, Doral Square, Aventura, Brickell, Dadeland, Las Olas, and Shops at Pembroke Gardens. For existing members, One Medical primary care doctors and access will not change. The company said it is working to ensure uninterrupted patient care.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a broad network of care in the same areas where their offices are,\u201d Batista-Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n One Medical has formed similar partnerships with health systems in 19 U.S. markets.<\/p>\n Amazon had previously launched online pharmacy services when it bought PillPack in 2018. The company now operates under the name PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy and acts as a full-service online pharmacy, pre-sorting regular medications into convenient tear-and-go packets and delivering them directly to homes.<\/p>\n Public opinion on Amazon One Medical is mixed, according to Healthline.com<\/a> and Reddit.com<\/a>. Online comments reveal people enjoy its convenience, easy-to-use telehealth app, and quick access to minor care. However, many criticize its billing structure, unexpected charges, and heavy reliance on Physician Assistants rather than doctors.<\/p>\n Baptist Health also operates its own virtual health platform for urgent care, the Baptist Health PineApp, which allows patients to see a doctor from anywhere, with no appointment needed.<\/p>\n South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a partnership announced Tuesday, Amazon One Medical has agreed to refer all of its primary care patients…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[8019,28,2808,97,252,253,2558,31040,3,37652,5262],"class_list":["post-700068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-broward-county","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami-dade-county","tag-news","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}