The rate at which Washington State citizens are losing access to pharmacies is concerning. The Washington State Pharmacy Association reports that in the past 18 months, our state has seen a record 83 pharmacy closures.
According to a recent Associated Press research, Washington State has the sixth-worst pharmacy access in the US. The entire state has been impacted by closures, from the most populous areas to rural settlements.
“We’ve seen a mass exodus of pharmacies from Seattle as well. And, there’s no more 24-hour pharmacies left in all of Seattle,” Jenny Arnold, CEO of the Washington State Pharmacy Association stated.
Part of the blame has been placed on opioid settlement money and retail theft. Jenny Arnold, however, claims that in Washington, “Pharmacy Benefit Managers,” or PBMs, are to blame for the declining access. PBMs are the intermediaries in the pharmacy sector.
According to a report published in the Missouri State Medical Association Journal, “PBMs use their market leverage to increase their profits—not reduce costs for consumers. Incredibly, PBMs own their own pharmacies. This ownership creates huge conflicts of interest, hurts competition, and distorts pricing.”
“Washington has been slower than other states in the country to adopt PBM regulations and aggressively pursue them and implement them,” Jenny Arnold of the WSPA stated.
State Senate Bill 5213, which was just passed, would, nevertheless, tighten PBM laws in our state. It will no longer be necessary for many people to fill specialist prescriptions through mail-order pharmacies.
“Those medications are expensive. They have fragile storage and handling. And to think that being left on your doorstep on a blistering hot eastern Washington day, or freezing cold, wet Western Washington day, it’s just not appropriate for most medications,” Arnold stated.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, sponsored a bipartisan bill on Capitol Hill to combat excessive prescription pricing and improve openness in the practices of Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Sen. Cantwell stated in a statement that “pharmacists are an integral part of the health care delivery system, and there’s no substitute for a neighborhood pharmacist.”
“I’m very concerned about the number of independent and community pharmacy closures in the State of Washington and how insurance company middlemen and their unfair business practices have contributed to those closures.”
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“If a pharmacy decides not to take that contract, they can lose a third of their business overnight. But it’s stuck between a rock and a hard place because they lose money on the contract, and yet they lose a third of their patients. It’s really a lose/lose situation for pharmacies,” Arnold stated.
Patients are urged by the Washington State Pharmacy Association to contact their U.S. Representative and express the need for reform.
We received a statement on this topic from Senator Maria Cantwell.
She informs Jesse that she has filed a bipartisan bill that will make prescription drug prices more transparent and hold PBMs responsible for manipulating prices.
“I’m very concerned about the number of independent and community pharmacy closures in the State of Washington, and how insurance company middlemen and their unfair business practices have contributed to those closures.”
Cantwell has presented a bipartisan bill that will make prescription drug prices more transparent and hold PBMs responsible for manipulating prices.
