The news: The two founders of online pharmacy PillPack, along with an Amazon executive, have founded a new company called General Medicine that allows customers to shop for healthcare. The company launched last week with $32 million in funding.

More on General Medicine: It’s an online healthcare services “store.”

• For example, General Medicine’s platform will provide a range of care options for a person’s specific health concern.
• If a person has questions about a health issue or symptoms but isn’t ready to book an appointment, they can text with General Medicine’s internal care team.
• The company can also connect users with specialists as well as lab, imaging, and pharmacy services.

Zooming out: The healthcare marketplace concept that allows consumers to shop and pay for care isn’t novel.

• Sesame is probably the most prevalent example.
• Amazon also had a marketplace where customers could search for care among different telehealth providers, but recently scaled that back.

The big takeaway: There are two main differences between other platforms and General Medicine. It lets people pay via insurance (Sesame and Amazon are cash-pay only) and shows upfront pricing that takes an individual’s health plan information into account.

• General Medicine works with most major insurers and provides cost estimates dependent on the user’s unique insurance plan details, such as how much is left on their annual deductible.
• TJ Parker, one of the company’s founders, said LLMs have now made it possible to read a person’s coverage and benefits, and map that to medical service prices at various facilities.
• The company also provides cash-pay estimates for people who want to go that route.

Our take: General Medicine launching with $32 million in funding isn’t something we’d typically call out. But we’re intrigued by the concept of allowing consumers to shop for medical care and get cost estimates at different providers based on their insurance plan details in just minutes. Considering Amazon’s technology prowess and its willingness to launch healthcare companies, we have to wonder if this could be a market the tech giant would re-enter as the power of AI opens up new possibilities.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.