Why Pharmacy Deserts Are Detrimental to US Communities

With current industry trends leading to an unprecedented number of pharmacy shutdowns, the challenges surrounding pharmacy deserts are gradually impacting the outcomes of patients in communities across the US. Whether it be increased advocacy and awareness, or for key stakeholders to enact change in the business side of pharmacy, experts believe the trends in pharmacy deserts need to be corrected in order to benefit patients’ access to essential services.

“It's important for us, whenever we see a problem or a disease, we have to diagnose what's causing this problem or this disease,” said Michael Murphy, PharmD, MBA. “The reason that we're seeing pharmacy deserts close across the country is because there is a business failure in community pharmacy that's not the community pharmacies’ fault. It is because we've seen, over the past several years, a significant decline in pharmacies being able to generate revenue when they dispense medications to their patients.”

According to several experts and advocates, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have negatively impacted pharmacy revenue, owing to the “business failure” in community pharmacy that Murphy discussed. However, despite the scrutiny they have received in recent history, the issue of pharmacy deserts is not solely based on PBM control.

“We also need policymakers at the state and federal level to pass legislation that recognize pharmacists as providers and allows for the reimbursement of those services, so that pharmacists can provide services to those patients, and patients are allowed to use their health insurance to receive those services as a covered benefit,” continued Murphy.

In this week’s episode of Over the Counter, Drug Topics was joined by Michael Murphy, who is an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy and an advisor for state government affairs at the American Pharmacists Association. He joined us to provide insights on the growing issue of pharmacy deserts, how they’re impacting patients, and what—from his perspective as a pharmacist—are the best ways to move forward as a country.

Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes on Over the Counter every Thursday afternoon. Check out our previous episode with Michael Kleinrock, lead research director at IQVIA. He joined us to discuss the importance of his company’s Understanding the Use of Medicines in the US 2025 report.

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