NY's community pharmacies cannot survive with out this key move |
I never imagined the day I would lock the doors of Keeseville Pharmacy for the last time. For nearly three decades, that store wasn’t just where I worked; it was where I fulfilled my purpose. It was where neighbors came for medicine, advice, reassurance, a quick chat or even a bundle of local produce for dinner. It was where families trusted me enough to call when an aging parent couldn’t leave the house, and where I’d grab my bag and go because that’s what a community pharmacist does.
I became the owner of Keeseville Pharmacy in 2001 but its story stretches back to 1983. For years, it stood proudly as the only pharmacy in Keeseville, a rural town where people don’t have the luxury of choosing between multiple providers or driving 40 minutes for care. We were the frontline of healthcare in a place where people see their pharmacist twice as often as their primary care provider.
On Oct. 25, I closed Keeseville Pharmacy for good. Just a few months earlier, I had been forced to close Cornerstone Drug & Gift in Rouses Point, another community fixture. Both closures were the result of the same impossible reality: independently owned pharmacies cannot survive under the current system controlled by immensely powerful prescription drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs.
People are often........