Amazon to end health services for businesses

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) said on Wednesday it plans to shut down its virtual health service by the end of this year, as a deal to buy a rival provider awaits regulatory approval.

Amazon Care, which allows corporate customers to offer digital or at-home doctor visits to their staff, has shortcomings despite the retailer's efforts, company executive Neil Lindsay (NYSE:LNN) told employees. "It is not a complete enough offering for the large corporate customers we are targeting and would not work in the long term," the company said in a message shared with Reuters. Amazon Care's clients included Hilton Worldwide Holdings (NYSE:HLT) Inc. The retailer offered virtual care nationwide and home searches in markets such as Los Angeles, Washington and Dallas. Last month, Amazon announced that it had agreed to buy One Medical, a Seattle primary care provider filled with brick-and-mortar doctors' offices that the tech company doesn't own, for $3.5 billion. Lindsay said he still believes health care is "ripe for reinvention."