In December 2024, the United States Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions published a report about injuries at Amazon warehouses. You can find a copy of this report, titled The “Injury-Productivity Trade-off”: How Amazon’s Obsession with Speed Creates Uniquely Dangerous Warehouses, here.
This report criticized Amazon’s on-site health facilities, called AMCARE, concluding that evidence from safety personnel, injured workers, and OSHA investigations at Amazon facilities shows “that AMCARE staff obstruct workers’ ability to obtain medical care beyond first aid when their injuries require it.” It further concluded that AMCARE’s “practices prolong workers’ recovery times and, in some cases, exacerbate their injuries.”
These findings were no surprise to us lawyers representing injured Amazon workers in Virginia and elsewhere in the United States. We have heard countless stories from Amazon warehouse employees who are frustrated by how AMCARE treats them or the long delay before receiving a referral to specialized health care providers.
This article discusses AMCARE, why you should not rely solely on what its staff tells you after a workplace injury, and what rights you have to see other doctors after an occupational injury. By refusing to let AMCARE dictate your diagnosis, treatment, and work restrictions, you increase the likelihood of negotiating a fair Amazon workers compensation settlement.
If you have questions after reading this article, call our firm at 804-251-1620 or complete this online form. We have helped thousands of injured employees negotiate workers comp payouts in Virginia. And we want to help you.
When you report an injury at an Amazon warehouse, your supervisor will likely tell you to visit the AMCARE clinic.
AMCARE stands for Administering Medical Care to Amazonians Responsibly and Effectively.
These clinics are housed within Amazon facilities and provide on-site first aid services to injured or sick employees.
On-site medical representatives and injury prevention specialists usually staff the AMCARE facilities. These people are not necessarily doctors; instead, they are emergency medical technicians (EMTs), athletic trainers, or paramedics.
No.
Call a lawyer immediately if your boss or safety manager fails to give you a list of at least three workers comp doctors to choose from.
Here’s why.
Amazon must follow the workers compensation rules. In Virginia, the law says your employer must offer a panel (list) of at least three doctors from which to choose. And these physicians must come from different medical practices.
Pigeonholing you to AMCARE for a work-related injury violates the law. And you give Amazon more control over the most critical person in your claim – the authorized treating physician – than you have to. This mistake may harm your case if you need doctor disability letters or reports on causation during litigation.
You may have already seen AMCARE staff for your warehouse injury when you read this article.
That’s fine. You have not screwed up your case.
But we recommend that you now get treatment outside the Amazon facility for several reasons.
First, we believe all employers (not just Amazon) use in-house medical staff to reduce workers comp costs and limit expenses from lifetime medical treatment and wage replacement benefits. This purpose may (and often does) conflict with your goals – receiving proper care so you can heal and return to work and obtaining cash benefits to keep your family financially afloat during your recovery.
Second, Amazon, your employer, operates AMCARE. This ownership creates a potential conflict of interest. Though the staff giving first aid may have good intentions, they have a livelihood to worry about. And they work for a company focused on productivity. This relationship can breed conflict between you and AMCARE.
Third, Amazon’s stated policy is that AMCARE staff may not provide medical diagnoses, excuse employees from work, or tell employees to return to work.
This policy creates problems with your health and workers compensation claim.
You need a correct diagnosis so a doctor can determine the appropriate treatment for healing. An incorrect diagnosis or inadequate medical care that fails to recognize you have a severe injury may lead to a worse outcome.
Further, you need work restrictions to receive an award of temporary partial or temporary total disability benefits. The Virginia Workers Compensation Commission will not infer initial or ongoing disability.
Therefore, if AMCARE staff follow the company’s internal policy, seeing AMCARE more than once after an injury will not help you get the workers comp benefits you may be entitled to.
Fourth, the Senate investigation revealed multiple reports of AMCARE staff diagnosing and improvising when seeing injured Amazon employees, something Amazon’s policy forbids. If done by an untrained person, these acts can cause more harm than good. Multiple allegations state that AMCARE had people without the proper licensures or certifications diagnosing and treating workers.
Fifth, injured Amazon workers have reported AMCARE staff questioning whether injuries occurred at work, blaming the employee for the accident, or discouraging the employee from seeing a doctor. An employee may see this type of questioning as a threat: If you file a workers comp claim, you may lose your job. And losing your job may lead to poverty. AMCARE’s questioning, therefore, may persuade some injured workers not to seek legal advice or file a claim for benefits.
Sixth, multiple injured workers reported that AMCARE was slow to refer them to outside providers when it became apparent they needed treatment beyond first aid. Documents corroborated these reports, finding a “Day 1 Send Out” paper. The Senate investigation uncovered Amazon’s practice of instructing AMCARE staff not to refer an injured worker for outside medical treatment under workers comp on the day the person reports the injury. And other evidence indicated that some AMCARE staff asked injured employees to return multiple times for treatment, waiting three weeks before referring the employee for outside care. These types of delays can devastate your recovery if you suffer a head injury and develop post-concussion syndrome.
Here are some ways the AMCARE issues described above can lower the value of your case:
AMCARE is a convenient first stop after a workplace injury, but it should not be your last.
Your health and financial well-being depend on an extensive medical work-up by trained medical doctors, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses.
If you are having trouble getting the care you need after an Amazon work injury, call our firm for help.