Changes are happening at national pharmacy chains, and they’re impacting neighborhood locations.
Some are closing stores across the country, including Northeast Ohio.
RELATED: Rite Aid likely to close hundreds of pharmacies in Ohio and Michigan
While reports have cited different reasons, an expert News 5 spoke with believes the financial problems chains are having go back to pharmacy benefit managers.
“These are the guys who negotiate prices between drugstores and the insurers and the reimbursement rates have been falling, it’s a very thin line that these pharmacies are having to walk,” said Senior Writer and Researcher forDrugWatch.Com, Terry Turner.
“So when they close stores, they’re closing the stores that are making them the least money and that tends to be in poorer neighborhoods where people have less money to spend on their medication.”
Turner said there are pharmacy deserts. Those are communities without pharmacies or without easy access to pharmacies.
RELATED: It’s not just CVS. Other big pharmacy chains cut hours, close stores
There isn’t an easy way to address the issue, said Turner. “Unless you have insurance that will allow you to have your medications delivered to you, but again, it’s something that not all people can afford to do.”
He said we have to provide medication to people in need. “We have to find a way, and that may be a government solution in the end and it may be something that, the states or federal government takes up to make sure that nobody is too far away from a prescription drug supply.”
