Amazon Prime transformed retail by solving two key friction points: shipping speed and return costs. Amenities Health sees a similar opportunity in healthcare, but the stakes are even higher. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, founder Aasim Saeed shared their vision for bringing Amazon-style loyalty to healthcare.
The Loyalty Crisis
Through 6,000 patient surveys, Amenities Health discovered a startling reality: not a single patient stayed loyal to one healthcare brand over two years. Even more concerning, healthcare systems couldn’t measure loyalty: “There’s not a single health system in the country that can tell you the lifetime value of a patient. It is literally not a metric that’s defined.”
The Amazon Prime Parallel
“Once Prime figured out that like, two-day shipping resolved my immediate satisfaction… and that I could return anything without having shipping costs, oh my goodness. My moral hazard went away from e-commerce,” Aasim explains. This transformation guides Amenities Health’s approach to healthcare loyalty.
Beyond Digital Front Door
While many startups focus on improving access, Amenities Health sees a bigger opportunity: “We say we’re the premier digital front door and loyalty platform. Loyalty is the category we want to get to and create, but that doesn’t exist.”
Their vision extends beyond appointment booking and registration. “The number one problem in US healthcare today for patients is cost. It’s the fear of bankruptcy,” Aasim notes. Their membership program addresses this through guarantees around pricing transparency and satisfaction.
Market-Driven Transformation
Amenities Health believes market forces can solve what policy hasn’t. “If you could see 10% market share shift from their competitors to them because they created a better experience, now the profit motive and greed and all the best parts of capitalism take over,” Aasim explains.
This shift could be worth “$100 million new that year” for health systems. The potential impact grows when considering healthcare’s massive lifetime customer value: “If you look at healthcare and patients like any other business would, the lifetime value of a patient in the US healthcare industry is probably measured in the magnitude of millions.”
Building for Scale
Unlike focused startups like Carbon Health or One Medical, Amenities Health aims to serve entire health systems. “Primary care is a loss leader in America. The things that make money are these high dollar surgical procedures,” Aasim notes. Their platform needs to handle everything from urgent care to specialized surgery.
The Future Vision
Amenities Health sees membership as the key to healthcare transformation. “You know what’s undeniable loyalty is when they’re paying $9 a month to be a member of your membership program,” Aasim shares. This model could finally give health systems the incentive to compete on experience rather than just clinical outcomes.
For founders, Amenities Health’s vision demonstrates the power of thinking beyond incremental improvements. Sometimes transforming an industry requires creating entirely new categories and metrics. As Aasim emphasizes, “We’re trying to establish a financial model that the largest players in healthcare can get excited about to really shift the market for the majority of Americans.”
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