Amazon, the VCPR, and the FTC

Hello 👋 

Welcome back to another edition of Weekend Rounds.

But first, a moment of silence for the goodest of boys, Bobi, who passed away this week. At a remarkable 31-years-old, Bobi held the Guinness World Record as both the oldest living dog and the oldest dog to ever live. It may not work for all dogs, but maybe Bobi figured out the key to a long life: always being allowed to roam free without a leash, eating unseasoned “human food”, and drinking a litre of water every day. We’ve linked a feature that Guinness World Records did on Bobi below.

And Happy Halloween! May your week be filled with spooky costumes, cute pets, and limited chocolate toxicity cases.

Here’s what we’ve got in our trick or treat bag today:

🤔 Amazon Considers Entering the Market
💻️ California OKs Teleheath
🇺🇸 FTC Sets Sights on Veterinary Anti-Trust
🚀 Quick Hits

🤔 Jeff Bezos, Dog Lover 

Full disclosure: we don’t know if Jeff Bezos is a dog lover. But here’s what we do know:

1. A new study found that dog owners care more about their pets than cat owners.

2. Amazon is considering entering the veterinary teleheath market

The decision appears to be in response to Walmart entering the veterinary healthcare market, as we’ve covered in past weeks. Whereas Walmart’s competitive advantage comes in the form of a vast network of brick and mortar locations that can support rapid expansion of vet clinics, Amazon’s advantage is ready-to-launch web services, and a vast network of existing subscribers to support a telehealth business.

Amazon has already entered the human health market, with its acquisition of One Medical earlier this year, and is already a dominant player in pet food and supplies.

The timing is unsurprising, as more large companies like Chewy, Walmart and Petco venture into pet health care to diversify their product offerings and get a slice of a global pet industry that is expected to grow to $500 billion by 2030.

💻️ California modifies the VCPR

If Amazon does go into telehealth, they may want to start in California who just passed Bill 1399 which will allow Californians to schedule a virtual visit with a veterinarian beginning January 1, 2024.

We purposefully said a veterinarian, not their veterinarian because the bill specifies a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) could be established remotely.

As I am sure you know, the conversation around the VCPR is a polarizing one. Proponents of telemedicine say that allowing vets to treat patients without establishing an in-person VCPR will help vets see more patients, lower costs, and mitigate the impacts of the veterinary shortage. Opponents say that the use of telemedicine without a previously established in-person relationship will produce more incidents of inaccurate diagnoses, ineffective treatment plans, and unnecessary prescriptions - thereby compounding the issues it seeks to solve.

🇺🇸 FTC Sets Sights on Veterinary Antitrust

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan addressed attendees at the at the AVMA Veterinary Business and Economic Forum on October 24:

Khan assured veterinarians that federal regulators are keeping a close eye on competition among veterinary service providers, and reiterated that markets should not be driven by larger businesses coercing smaller ones to sell.

🚀 Quick Hits

Here are some of the other stories we're following this week from around the veterinary world and animal kingdom:

How do veterinarians mitigate liability concerns with workforce shortages? [AVMA]

Kaley Cuoco launches purpose-driven pet care brand [Oh Norman]

Elevating veterinary technician wages: A new approach to compensation [DVM360]