Amazon Enables Digital Health Benefits Check for Chronic Conditions

January 08, 2024 - Amazon has taken its next step into healthcare, launching a new initiative to help connect healthcare consumers with digital health benefits for chronic conditions available through their employer or insurance plan.

Called the Health Condition Programs, the initiative focuses on making it easier for healthcare consumers to identify and enroll in digital health programs targeting chronic conditions like prediabetes, diabetes, and high blood pressure, or hypertension. Amazon is partnering with digital health companies, starting with Omada Health, to enable consumers to apply for programs if they are eligible through their employer-sponsored health plan or other commercial insurance.

Consumers can check their eligibility for digital health benefits on Amazon’s website. If eligible, they can enroll in programs offering access to connected devices, personal care teams, health coaching, and nutrition planning.

“Amazon wants to make it easier for people to get and stay healthy, and part of that is making it easier to discover the products, services, and professionals that can help them do that. Many people aren’t aware of the health care benefits they’re eligible for, that are typically no cost or subsidized by their employer or insurance plan,” said Aaron Martin, vice president of healthcare at Amazon, in a post on the company’s website.

Amazon’s launch partner for this new initiative is Omada Health, a virtual healthcare provider offering digital health programs focused on diabetes prevention, diabetes, hypertension, and joint and muscle health.

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While searching Amazon for health-related products, customers can conduct a general insurance coverage check on the Amazon Health website to see whether they are eligible for Omada Health’s programs. If they are, they will be directed to Omada Health’s website to complete enrollment. If they are not currently covered, consumers can create a benefits profile and choose to be notified if their coverage expands to include these benefits in the future.

“This partnership is pivotal for Omada, as we are leveraging Amazon’s wide reach to literally meet consumers where they are, just as we do for our members as a virtual-first care provider,” said Omada Health CEO and Co-Founder Sean Duffy in a press release. “Ultimately, the more people we’re able to reach, the larger impact we can have on the rising prevalence of chronic disease.”

Omada’s chronic care programs provide personalized care plans to help patients improve lifestyle habits, such as diet, access to care and education specialists and health coaches, and pre-connected devices that collect data that can be submitted to care teams via an application.

Omada has also conducted research showing the efficacy of its programs. In 2020, the company presented results from a randomized clinical trial showing that its Digital Diabetes Prevention Program reduced hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) by 0.23 percent on average at 12 months. Further, 58 percent of Omada diabetes program participants reduced their HbA1c to the normal range one year after beginning the program and achieved an average weight loss of 5.4 percent one year after enrollment.

The new enrollment pathway established through the Health Conditions Programs will help raise awareness of digital health programs like Omada’s, Amazon noted.

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However, there is the question of data privacy. Amazon stated that it will share the customer’s benefits profile, including name, date of birth, email, employer, and insurance carrier, with Omada through a secure portal to verify eligibility. Omada will then share the customer’s eligibility results, enrollment status, and subsequent actions with Amazon.

Amazon will perform some healthcare operations for Omada, such as confirming a customer’s likely coverage, in accordance with HIPAA.

“Individually identifiable information sent to and received by digital health companies that are regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is protected health information (PHI), and we secure and protect it accordingly,” the company stated.

Data privacy is a prickly issue for Amazon as it continues to make inroads into the healthcare industry.

For instance, Sens. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy last June expressing concern over Amazon Clinic's data privacy practices.

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The technology giant launched Amazon Clinic in November 2022, expanding the service nationwide last August. The virtual care clinic provides access to an online marketplace of telehealth provider groups, where healthcare consumers can compare response times and prices before selecting a provider. Healthcare consumers can receive treatment for 30 conditions, including urinary tract infections, pink eye, and erectile dysfunction.

The senators took issue with Amazon Clinic’s HIPAA authorization form, which indicates that patient information “‘may be re-disclosed,’ after which it will ‘no longer be protected by HIPAA,’ the federal law that requires providers to take steps to protect patient health data. The form does not provide specific details on how patient data will be shared or used going forward,” Welch and Warren wrote.