Business Corpus: Amazon Health Care Push Grows With Plan For Its Own ClinicsAfter some hesitation over entering the retail prescription business and doubts over whether the joint venture could succeed, the Amazon health care push has seen a flurry of activity. The post Amazon Health Care Push Grows With Plan For Its Own Clinics appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Amazon (AMZN) is getting ready to open its first primary care clinic later this year at its Seattle headquarters. The plan, reported by CNBC, fits with the Amazon health care joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to improve care and shrink costs for employer-provided health care.

After a period of hesitation over whether to enter the retail prescription business and doubts over whether the joint venture could succeed, the Amazon health care push has seen a flurry of activity.

In June, the trio of companies tapped Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande as CEO. A week later, Amazon announced a deal for online pharmacy PillPack, which had been in talks with Walmart (WMT). Although PillPack had just about $100 million in revenue last year, it immediately gives Amazon prescription licenses in 50 states. Now it's moving to start employee clinics, after initially looking to outsource the effort.

Amazon's entry into the business is already shaking things up. Activist investor Carl Icahn is trying to torpedo the acquisition of Express Scripts (ESRX) by insurer Cigna (CI), saying Amazon now poses an existential threat for the prescription benefit manager.

CVS Health (CVS), which launched same-day delivery in major markets and next-day delivery across the country earlier this year, on Wednesday announced nationwide telehealth visits via its MinuteClinic app in a partnership with Teladoc (TDOC). Drugstore-and-PBM giant CVS hopes to close its Aetna (AET) acquisition later this year as it looks to offer more health services.

While Amazon's PillPack purchase slammed shares of drugstores and drug distributors, Thursday's incremental news didn't make much of an imprint on the stock market today. CVS rose 1.2%, while Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) slipped 0.3%. Among drug distributors, McKesson (MCK) slipped 0.2%, while Cardinal Health (CAH) rose 0.9% and AmerisourceBergen (ABC) gained 1.1%. Express Scripts rallied 4.1% as a key Cigna shareholder backed the Cigna-Express Scripts deal.

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The post Amazon Health Care Push Grows With Plan For Its Own Clinics appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.