More than 100 Sunflower State pharmacies will close shop next week—to help send a message to lawmakers.
Wolkar Drug president and pharmacist Brian Caswell says on Wednesday, February 5, roughly 100 stores in 56 Kansas counties will close—including Wolkar Drug in Baxter Springs.
Roughly 400 people from those stores will be headed to Topeka—hoping to make a change in healthcare laws.
Caswell says pharmacy benefit managers—or PBM’s—have had a big, and negative, impact on the healthcare industry.
Caswell tells us PBM’s act as the middlemen between insurance companies and pharmacies—and can cause higher deductibles and even dictate what medications are covered, based on what makes them more money.
“PBM’s have been around for, like, well over 40 years, and they’ve slowly kind of changed the industry altogether and taken over. With the success of money and power, they’ve actually created a healthcare industry that’s just unsustainable right now,” said Brian Caswell, Wolkar Drug president & pharmacist.
Caswell says many pharmacists—including him—have collected letters from customers of their pharmacies in support of changes to the law to deliver to lawmakers.
He says you can help—by contacting your state and federal lawmakers and voicing your opinion.
Filed under: General Problems
YES !!! Damn the PBMs.
Lost my great Mom and Pop pharmacy over PBMs.
Only options left are Walgreens, Walmart and Costco
Lucky to have those, many are in a pharmacy desert.
Walgreen might not be around much longer, they just stopped paying dividends to their stock holders. They have been paying quarterly dividends for 93 yrs. Also over the last 5 yrs, their stock price has dropped some 75%.. last Friday it closed at $10 and change and intra-day it got down to $8 and change
Go Kansas