The head of Amazon’s healthcare business wants employees to know Tuesday’s layoffs are part of a normal business cycle, not a sign of underperformance.
In an internal email on Wednesday, obtained by Business Insider, Amazon Health Services SVP Neil Lindsay wrote that “the most successful businesses” typically go through such phases of change.
He noted that other companies have also made similar job cuts lately, urging employees not to believe the “pundits” who may say negative things about Amazon’s healthcare business.
“As often happens with changes like this, some pundits may speculate that we’re eliminating roles because our health care business is underperforming — don’t believe this speculation. The most successful businesses, those that deliver for their customers, typically go through phases of reorganization or realignment to put energy where they need it most. You have likely seen many healthy businesses both inside and outside of Amazon reprioritizing recently, leading to role reductions in some areas and additions in others. That’s what this is,” Lindsay wrote in the email.
Lindsay’s email comes a day after Amazon cut hundreds of jobs across its One Medical and Pharmacy units, as BI previously reported. In a separate email on Tuesday, Lindsay highlighted the growth of Amazon’s healthcare business, saying the layoffs were intended to “reposition resources” so the company can better invest in other growth areas.
In an email to BI, Amazon’s spokesperson said, “The past few years have been exciting periods of growth for One Medical, as the company scaled to bring offices to dozens of cities across the U.S., provided more members of all ages with high-quality care, and introduced a chronic care management program that has shown outsized and equitable results for our patients. We are on track to hire more providers in 2024 than we have in any other year in One Medical’s history, and these changes are intended to reposition resources to help us care for a growing number of members and patients across the U.S.”
On Wednesday, Lindsay reiterated the success of Amazon’s healthcare business, such as the growth in One Medical’s membership. He also said Amazon integrated One Medical’s finance, legal, and tech teams into Amazon’s healthcare business as it looks to “realign resources.”
“I’m incredibly energized and excited about our work in health care. Over the last year, we’ve accelerated the growth of One Medical membership and the number of Amazon Pharmacy customers we serve, and we’ve surpassed our most important goals across One Medical, Amazon Pharmacy, and Amazon Clinic. In doing so, we’re having a real impact on making health care simpler and more affordable,” Lindsay wrote.
One Medical has been pressured to cut costs since Amazon closed the deal to acquire the healthcare company for $3.9 billion in early 2023. The recent layoffs are part of a plan to save an additional $100 million in operating expenses this year, BI previously reported. One Medical had an operating loss of $420 million in 2022, the last year it publicly disclosed financial results before being acquired by Amazon.
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