Amazon now accepting HSA, FSA payments

Amazon is continuing to move deeper into the healthcare space.

The retailer is now allowing consumers to use flexible spending and health savings accounts on its site to purchase medical supplies, from eye drops and Band-Aids to over-the-counter medicine. It started the move in early March, CNBC reports.

“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,” Amazon said in a statement to CNBC this week.

Items will be listed on Amazon as “FSA or HSA eligible” on the individual product pages; a full list of items can also be browsed on Amazon’s website.

The move coincides with the retailer adding more health and wellness products to its site in recent years. Amazon’s chief competitor, Walmart, allows consumers to use HSA and FSA cards to purchase medical items, as well.

Steven Auerbach, CEO of Alegeus, says Amazon’s move is a “great example of industry consolidation that aims to make shopping for healthcare as easy as it is for other retail purchases.”

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

“Consumers continue to have increased control over their healthcare decisions and finances,” he says. “As the healthcare market is laser focused on driving affordability and financial responsibility, moves like these are what will truly reinvent the consumer healthcare funding experience.”

Amazon has been making a lot of moves in the healthcare industry as of late.

In June, it acquired PillPack, an internet pharmacy company, signaling an interest to deliver prescription medications in the U.S. PillPack has not yet been fully integrated into Amazon.

Perhaps more significant to employers, early last year Amazon announced its partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to form its own healthcare company for the three companies' 1.2 million employees.

Earlier this month, the three companies revealed the name for the healthcare company, Haven, as well as more information on its mission. The company said it will be tasked with improving healthcare for the three companies’ employees and family members by creating “better outcomes and overall experience, as well as lower costs” for employees and their families, Haven’s CEO Atul Gawande wrote in a letter posted on its website.

Gawande wrote on the new website, havenhealthcare.com, that the three companies founded Haven because “they have been frustrated by the quality, service, and high costs that their employees and families have experienced in the U.S. health system. They believe that we can do better, and in taking this step to form this new organization, they have committed to being a part of the solution.”