08/23/2025
đź’ˇ Imagine this:
You walk into Target, grab a cart full of stuff — clothes, electronics, food — and at checkout the cashier says:
“Don’t worry, we’ll pay for it. Hopefully we’ll get reimbursed in a few weeks… but probably for less than what it cost us.”
Sounds insane, right? No business in America could survive like that.
But that’s exactly what independent pharmacies do every single day.
• They hand patients life-saving medications.
• They pay upfront out of their own pocket.
• Then they wait weeks (or months) for PBMs -Pharmacy benefit managers- to reimburse them… often for less than the cost of the drug.
Independent pharmacies aren’t failing because of bad business.
They’re failing because they’re forced to run a business model that no other industry would tolerate.
📉 Until PBM reform happens, more community pharmacies will close — and patients will be left behind.
