Buzzy, venture-backed startups and big tech companies that have promised to disrupt health care are indeed doing so — including by shuttering services that early adopter patients may have come to rely on.
Following its deal to acquire primary care tech company One Medical, Amazon announced it was ending its own virtual- and in-person health service Amazon Care, which covers 40,000 patients, by the end of the year. Telehealth prescription company Cerebral, which used pandemic-era regulatory flexibility to virtually treat mental health conditions like ADHD, has largely halted controlled substance prescriptions in light of scrutiny from federal and state regulators. Dozens of other health tech companies are cutting back their staff or shuttering business lines, doubting sustained demand from consumers and employers.
While some companies say they’re helping patients find care elsewhere, the churn could disrupt patients who lack other options for in-person care or prescribers where they live, who can’t afford other services, or who lose their health records in the shuffle between providers, experts tell STAT.
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