Apple launches in-house employee healthcare service, called AC Wellness

Apple is bringing employee healthcare in-house with a new line of clinics, called AC Wellness.

On its website, the venture describes itself as “an independent medical practice dedicated to delivering compassionate, effective healthcare to the Apple employee population.” From what we can tell, it seems it aims to cover the functions of a primary care clinic, but with all the high-end trappings you’d expect from Apple.

The About page of AC Wellness promises “high-quality care,” and a “unique patient experience.” It also states care will be “enabled by technology,” which isn’t particularly surprising, given health-tech has been an area of interest for Apple recently.

According to CNBC, AC Wellness will launch two clinics in Santa Clara, California. One is in close proximity to Apple’s Cupertino HQ, while the other will conveniently be located within the quirky new Apple Park HQ.

AC Wellness is actively recruiting healthcare personnel. On its career page, it’s actively searching for both primary and acute care physicians, nurses, and testing staff. The venture is also recruiting coaches and “behavioral health partners,” which will offer guidance and preventative health tips.

For tech companies, health insurance is an essential employment benefit. That’s particularly true in the US, where the cost of seeing a physician can be astronomical. In order to attract talent, companies distinguish themselves through the quality of insurance they offer.

With AC Wellness, Apple goes one step further. By creating its own healthcare company, it’s able to control every element of the experience. If this experiment works, it could be a real draw to work at Apple.

There are a couple of other benefits to Apple, too. Firstly, by moving primary healthcare in-house, AC Wellness could ultimately save the company a significant amount of money. It could also serve as a laboratory for Apple’s future endeavours in health-tech, and be the place where the company’s future healthcare products are pioneered.