Understand any stock in simple English
Enter a ticker to learn what the company does and how it makes money.
1Life Healthcare runs One Medical, a membership-based primary care practice that charges people a yearly fee plus insurance payments for doctor visits.
1Life Healthcare is the company behind One Medical, a chain of primary care doctor's offices built to feel less like a grim waiting room and more like a nice coffee shop. You pay an annual membership fee — roughly $199 a year for an individual — and in exchange you get easy same-day appointments, an app that lets you message a doctor anytime, and offices in convenient spots in big cities. On top of that membership fee, the company bills insurance for the actual medical visits. So there are really two ways it makes money: the membership dues, which are a smaller slice, and the insurance reimbursements for care, which are the bulk of revenue.
Think of it as the Netflix model applied to your family doctor: a predictable subscription that gets you in the door and keeps you coming back, while the real money flows in from insurers paying for each visit. One Medical serves mostly urban professionals and, increasingly, companies that buy memberships for their employees as a perk. That employer channel matters a lot because one company signing up hundreds of workers is far cheaper than recruiting members one at a time. The company went public in 2020 and grew quickly by opening new offices and buying other practices, but it has consistently lost money as it spends heavily to expand.
The big recent turning point is that One Medical is being bought by Amazon in a deal valued at roughly $3.9 billion, announced in 2022. Amazon wants a foot in the door of healthcare, and One Medical gives it real clinics, real doctors, and real insurance relationships. That combination — Amazon's cash and logistics muscle plus One Medical's clinics — is the story to watch. Until the deal closes, the company keeps operating on its own, still growing revenue fast but still working toward profitability.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Oct 2026