The Demise Of American Pharmacies: The Impact Of Pharmacy Deserts

An expanding number of Americans unrecorded successful drugstore deserts, which affects their entree to 1 of nan first lines of wellness care. The rumor is exacerbated arsenic independent pharmacies nationwide person closed their doors. 

This is portion 3 of a three-part series connected struggles wrong American pharmacies and nan effect it has connected entree to healthcare. 

“Depending connected wherever you live, it whitethorn still beryllium beautiful easy to find a pharmacy, but different places wherever you live, it’s becoming very difficult simply to get a medicine filled,” Douglas Hoey, CEO of nan National Community Pharmacists Association, told Straight Arrow News. “We telephone those drugstore deserts, and nan drugstore deserts successful nan United States are expanding, truthful much and much patients are uncovering it difficult to get that medicine filled.”

Independent pharmacies are disappearing crossed nan country, erstwhile wellness security executive Wendell Potter said successful an question and reply pinch SAN.

“They’ve vanished by nan hundreds, and moreover immoderate of nan concatenation unit stores — CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid — galore of them are closing arsenic well,” Potter said.

What is simply a drugstore desert?

Nearly half of each counties successful nan U.S. person astatine slightest 1 “pharmacy desert,” according to investigation from nan Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

While location isn’t a cosmopolitan meaning of what constitutes a drugstore desert, Ohio State researchers defined it arsenic a 10-mile area that contains nary unit pharmacy. 

“You could person a drugstore 2 miles away, which, for astir people, that’s beautiful close,” Hoey said. “But if you don’t person a conveyance aliases you don’t locomotion good (or) have  trouble stepping 2 miles (it) mightiness arsenic good beryllium 100 miles.”

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican from Georgia and pharmacist by trade, said if pharmacies support closing, peculiarly successful agrarian areas, accessibility to wellness attraction is going to suffer.

“Whether you’re Republican aliases Democrat aliases Independent, we each want nan aforesaid thing,” Carter said. “We want accessible, affordable, value wellness care.”

Impacts of drugstore deserts

Pharmacy deserts are usually recovered successful places pinch little income and acquisition levels, and wherever residents either don’t person wellness security aliases trust connected nationalist wellness insurance, according to Maxor National Pharmacy Services.

“These underserved neighborhoods often acquisition higher rates of chronic wellness conditions,” Maxor said successful a December 2024 blog post.

Longer recreation times to nan drugstore tin lend to a diligent not adhering to their aesculapian curen plan, according to investigation published successful U.S. Pharmacist. This tin lead to mediocre wellness outcomes and accrued aesculapian attraction costs because of hospitalizations aliases trips to nan emergency room, Noelle Kwan, an inpatient objective pharmacist astatine Carle Foundation Hospital successful Illinois, wrote successful U.S. Pharmacist.

“Although location are programs to heighten affordability and accessibility, they are only disposable astatine definite pharmacies, threatening medicine adherence,” Kwan said.

Saving American pharmacies

Roughly 1 successful 3 pharmacies successful nan U.S. person closed since 2010, according to investigation from nan University of Southern California and nan University of California, Berkeley. Experts SAN said pinch said nan solution to drugstore woes goes backmost to portion 2 of this series, pharmacy use managers, aliases PBMs. 

“If we were capable to do thing astir PBMs, they’re conscionable going to dress up for it location else,” Carter said. “That’s why we’ve sewage to break these up, bust them up.”

Congress needs to return action pinch nan 2 biggest programs successful pharmacy: Medicare and Medicaid, Hoey said.

“The Medicare program, nan Part D program, is tally by nan PBMs,” Hoey said. “The national authorities turned complete nan programme to nan PBMs.”

As mentioned successful portion 2 of nan bid connected nan demise of American pharmacies, SAN covered really PBM betterment was near retired of nan astir caller spending bill. Now, states person taken up nan cause.