First Look: Amazon Picks Las Colinas as the First Location for its New Neighborhood Health Center Pilot Program

It's the first of six to be established in the Dallas region this year. Amazon is collaborating with Crossover Health to establish health centers near its fulfillment centers and operations facilities. Each center will provide full-spectrum acute, chronic, and preventive primary care for employees and their families.

Amazon has chosen North Texas as the first location for its latest venture.

This week, the e-commerce giant announced a new healthcare pilot with primary care services provider Crossover Health to establish health centers near Amazon fulfillment centers and operations facilities. The first will be in Las Colinas.

Amazon plans to establish 20 health centers in five cities across the country: Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Arizona; Louisville, Kentucky; Detroit, Michigan; and San Bernardino/Moreno Valley, California. The Las Colinas health center is the first of six to launch locally, with additional locations coming to Fort Worth, Garland, Grapevine, and Duncanville later this year.

Each Neighborhood Health Center location will be fully operated and staffed by Crossover Health and available to Amazon employees and their families in the area. Each center will have extended hours to accommodate varying employee schedules.

Per Amazon, the centers will provide full-spectrum acute, chronic, and preventive primary care, which includes prescription medications, vaccinations, behavioral health services, physical therapy, chiropractic care, health coaching, and care navigation to specialty referral services. Same-day pediatric services will also be available.

Amazon Neighborhood Health Center [Photo: Scott Fischer via Amazon]

Amazon decided to launch the pilot program to represent its “commitment to the health and wellness of its people.” It also demonstrates the company’s “industry-leading benefits package for employees.”

That includes a $15 minimum wage, comprehensive healthcare for full-time employees from day one, 401(k) program with a 50 percent company match, up to 20 weeks paid parental leave, infertility and adoption benefits, and flexible Leave Share and Ramp Back Programs for new parents.

Amazon also has a Career Choice Program that pre-pays 95 percent of the tuition for courses in high-demand fields.

“Across the U.S., an increasing number of patients do not have easy access to a primary care physician and instead utilize emergency or urgent care options, which is not only more expensive for patients, but also overlooks important preventative care opportunities,” Darcie Henry, Amazon’s VP of Human Resources, said in a statement. “We want to solve that for our employees, and the launch of these new Neighborhood Health Centers will provide a range of quality primary care services for employees across the country.”

In its entirety, Amazon expects the program to impact more than 115,000 associates and their families.

Amazon Neighborhood Health Center [Photo: Scott Fischer via Amazon]

“Prevention and early detection is essential to remaining healthy, and the importance of primary care cannot be understated. I appreciate seeing the collaboration between Amazon and Crossover Health to ensure their employees have access to quality and convenient health care services. I am also pleased that this pilot program will run in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Congressman Michael C. Burgess (TX-26) said in a statement.

“The health and wellness opportunities Amazon is providing its employees should spark inspiration for other companies to follow suit in providing similar benefits.”

California-based Crossover Health is a national medical group that works with self-insured employers to connect employees to integrated care teams. Its proprietary technology platform allows patients to start their care online and later move to in-person care if need be.

“Crossover Health believes that exceptional primary care is central to continued health and well-being,” CEO and Co-Founder Scott Shreeve said in a statement. “Now it’s more important than ever to make care available through multiple channels and across the full continuum. Our advanced primary care model will serve as vital infrastructure to deliver expanded access to care in-person and online to meet the needs of Amazon’s employees and their families.”