The Story of a Pharmacist Going From Corporate to Cost Plus

From a young age, Gregg Jones, MBA, RPh, wanted to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, also a pharmacist, who worked at a busy independent pharmacy.

“I was impressed with his broad breadth of expertise in the sciences and his focus on improving his community,” Jones said. “His pharmacy was the primary pharmacy provider in the town, and chains struggled to gain market share with the fantastic reputation and focus on the unique needs of his community.”

While in pharmacy school, Jones worked for a small group of retail independent pharmacies in Rhode Island and was “wowed by the technical knowledge of the pharmacists,” he said.

After graduation, Jones began his pharmacy career at a growing supermarket chain. His career advanced to corporate pharmacy management in professional services, supply chain, and clinical services on the East Coast.

After 30 years, Jones pivoted to a mass-merchant pharmacy in Wisconsin in a similar professional services role. In Wisconsin, pharmacists had “expanded their clinical expertise and were actually practicing at the level that my URI professors had promised was coming many moons prior,” he said.

Sadly, Jones recalls, the direct and indirect remuneration fees ultimately closed his chain down. In 2019, just before the world shut down due to COVID-19, Jones moved back to Rhode Island. During the pandemic, Jones worked remotely and focused on developing programs to expand point-of-care testing, immunizations, electronic health record integration, medical billing, digital tools, and inventory management. He attended many trade shows, listening to stories about pharmacies abandoning the insurance model.

“All of this led me to decide to open a cash-based model in my home state, Rhode Island, and offer pharmacist-led clinical services,” he said, noting that Rhode Island “seemed like it was operating a few decades in the past compared to more progressive states—and ripe for disruption.”

Jones proudly opened Compass Core Pharmacy, Rhode Island’s first cost-plus pharmacy model, in May 2025, which he is now the president of. The cost-plus model focuses mostly on generic medications, which “align with most of the current primary wholesaler distribution models,” Jones said. The pharmacy uses multiple secondary wholesalers to attain the best generic prices for its cash-based patients. Jones uses an artificial intelligence–driven ordering tool called CheckMyRxCost, which he credits with significantly improving the ordering process. Jones also notes another favorite tool is the Strategies4RXsavings subscription, which helps the pharmacy staff find manufacturer and grant programs for the few brand-name drugs they dispense.

The pharmacy also offers a membership program for additional services and for prescription and OTC purchases. “Membership helps the patients feel appreciated and not a burden,” Jones said.

The pharmacy’s cash-only model has attracted a following of pet owners and veterinarians. Compass Core Pharmacy now fills prescriptions for more than 1400 pet medications, attracting loyal customers, including veterinarians, from across the region.

Compass Core Pharmacy is a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments–waived pharmacy, which allows staff to provide point-of-care testing, including lipid panels, glucose, hemoglobin A_1C, flu, and strep.

Although the pharmacy has been open for less than a year, Jones said it has a strong following for the more than 45 local vendor products it carries, such as package-free soaps, shampoos, and conditioners. What’s more, these products make the pharmacy smell inviting to customers.

“Our desire to innovate is being recognized and is considered a tremendous alternative to the Rhode Island–based chain locations that continue to alienate more patients with subpar service and new technology that irritates patients more. With a large exodus of primary care physicians leaving RI [Rhode Island], patients are seeking alternative midlevel practitioners,” Jones said. “We hope to help fill that gap.”

Jones and his staff engage with the community, working with insurance brokers and Medicare D advisers. Like many independents, Jones focuses on connecting with patients. He stresses that in his pharmacy, there is no interactive voice response to navigate—someone will always answer the phone. The staff prioritizes recognizing patients by name and helping with their individual needs.

“It is one customer at a time and the power of word-of-mouth experiences that will determine long-term success. One can spend most of their day focused on things out of their control, like PBM [pharmacy benefit manager] agreements, wholesaler challenges, and third-party audits, or one can take control of their pharmacy journey and make a customer smile with our cost-plus pharmacy model,” Jones said.

When he’s not at the pharmacy, Jones enjoys life in the Ocean State. He enjoys water sports and spending time at the beach, as well as restoring small engines. Jones’ 1964 Mustang has accompanied him from Rhode Island to Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and back again. “It only seems to break down when my wife comes for a ride,” he joked.