Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1492995
23 INNOVATION Why Amazon, Alphabet are letting some healthcare employees go By Naomi Diaz A mazon and Alphabet's healthcare arm Verily said it would let go some of its healthcare employees as an uncertain economy has been causing financial and operational challenges for tech companies. Most recently, Verily said it would lay off 15 percent of its staff, sunset some of its healthcare projects and restructure its leadership. "We cannot do everything and have had to make some difficult choices," said Verily's CEO, Stephen Gillett, in an email to employees on Jan. 11. e healthcare unit will discontinue work on remote patient monitoring for heart failure and microneedles for drug delivery. e company will also say goodbye to long-time team member Jordi Parramon, who currently serves as the president of Verily's devices businesses. e restructuring comes as the company is looking to focus on areas of precision health, data and evidence. Amazon is also letting go of some of its healthcare employees who worked on Amazon Care, the company's in-person and virtual primary care services. e company said back in August that it was planning to shutter the service on Dec. 31. e shutdown caused 159 Amazon Care employees to lose their jobs, as well as 236 employees from standalone company Care Medical. Care Medical employees were in charge of treating Amazon Care patients. e layoffs come as Amazon deemed the service "not a complete enough offering" for large enterprise customers. n CVS Health debuts new virtual primary care By Laura Dyrda CVS Health launched new virtual care offerings Jan. 23 focused on primary care and mental health services. CVS Health Virtual Primary Care includes pre-scheduled primary care and mental health visits as well as on- demand services. All Aetna commercial members in fully- insured and self-insured health plans can use the virtual care platform. Board-certified physicians and nurse practitioners provide the primary care services and can consult with CVS pharmacists to support patients. Patients may be referred to in-person visits at CVS MinuteClinics. The mental health services, including visits with clinicians, licensed therapists and psychiatrists, are available to members over 18 years old. n Image Credit: The New York Times