Amazon Once Inspired Fear in the Health-Care Industry. No Longer

Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime membership program began with speedy shipping, then video streaming. The latest perk—discounted access to a virtual doctor—is being pitched as another win for customers: medical care delivered as seamlessly as tube socks and television shows.

But it’s a capitulation of sorts. Having spent almost a decade and billions of dollars trying to re-invent American health care, Amazon has settled on a decidedly traditional approach. The company runs doctors’ offices and pharmacies itself, offering Prime subscribers a $100 discount on memberships at One Medical, the concierge primary-care chain it acquired in February. In the highly regulated business of treating colds and dispensing pills, the strategy is a familiar one, albeit with some technology thrown in, and it disappointed industry observers who had hoped the company’s long-awaited entry into health care would mean radical breakthroughs.