Amazon Now Accepts FSA and HSA Payments

If you’re buying medical supplies on Amazon, you’ll now be able to do so using your flexible savings account or health savings account to receive discounts, as reported by CNBC.

These programs are commonly known as FSA or HSA. People who have health insurance put aside part of their income before taxes to cover medical expenses that have to be paid for out-of-pocket, like prescriptions and medical supplies.

There wasn’t a huge announcement to share the new update when it originally rolled out earlier this month. Although outlets like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did spot it. Now, Amazon has officially confirmed the change.

“Customers now have the flexibility to use FSA/HSA cards on a wide range of eligible over-the-counter purchases, eliminating the need to pay out-of-pocket or submit receipts for reimbursement,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.

This signals Amazon branching further out into the healthcare industry. It already started in 2018 with its acquisition of PillPack, an internet pharmacy company. Although PillPack still isn’t fully integrated into Amazon, the company saw promise in it.

According to Digital Commerce 360, Brian T. Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer said, “Recently, we’re looking for well-run companies with highly-differentiated customer experience, and a real sense of customer obsession that matches ours—we think PillPack has got all those traits, and we look forward to the deal closing and working with them.”

The company accepting FSA and HSA is another way for it to start learning all about the healthcare industry while it works on further developing PillPack.

Michael Yang, a health-tech investor with Omers Ventures, said, according to CNBC, “It’s a back end way for Amazon to learn about consumer purchasing behavior of health care products and services, as it moves more deeply into the space.”

It’ll be interesting to watch as Amazon starts to do more in the healthcare industry. The tech giant definitely changed the retail landscape, so it’s likely that it’ll switch things up in healthcare, too.