Report: UPS is in the process of entering the United States home health services market

A Reuters report published last week indicated that Atlanta-based transportation and logistics services bellwether UPS is in the process of entering the United States home health services market that is expected to begin later this year.

According to the report, UPS is currently preparing to test a U.S. services in which it will dispatch nurses to vaccinate adults in their homes (it was not stated what vaccines would be used), at a time when UPS and its healthcare clients are making efforts to quell cost pressures, as well as competitive threats from Amazon. And the report added that global pharmaceutical player Merck & Co indicated it is “looking at partnering” with UPS for this service.

What’s more, Reuters explained how this move reflects how UPS is looking to get more involved in the $85 billion outsourced healthcare logistics market, currently paced by the Deutsche Post DHL Group, which is expected to expand to $105 billion by 2021.

The report said that the home vaccination efforts would work in the following way: “Workers in UPS’ 1.7 million-square-foot healthcare complex at Worldport will package and ship the vaccine to one of the more 4,700 franchised U.S. UPS stores. A home health nurse contracted by UPS’ clinical trial logistics unit known as Marken will collect the insulated package, transport it the ‘last mile’ to the patient’s home and administer the vaccine, which will target a viral illness in adults.”

UPS executives indicated, in the report, that they are bullish about this initiative, with Chris Cassidy, UPS vice president of global healthcare logistics strategy, saying that “over-the-threshold services is where the world is heading,” and Wes Wheeler, CEO of Marken, whom UPS acquired in 2016 describing its objective as a way to “see if we can connect all these dots.”

When UPS first acquired Marken, it said that said this acquisition would provide the company with growth opportunities across the life sciences customer base.  And they added that clinical trials require strict regulatory compliance, streamlined logistics services, and global reach, which is where Marken’s operations of a global network of clinical supply chain services to meet increasingly complex customer demands, made it a good fit, along with various acquisitions UPS has made to expand its healthcare logistics services offering portfolio.

A UPS official told LM that the company is not offering any further details beyond the information outlined in the Reuters article due to concerns about confidentiality. 

“We often develop custom operating plans involving various capabilities in our network, but we don’t elaborate on those details because we seek to maintain competitive advantages,” he said.