In today’s world, community pharmacies are navigating several challenges, from rising costs of drugs to being able to diversify their offerings to get patients through their doors, experts say.
But some pharmacies are trying to address those challenges to create better experiences for their patients – such as a local pharmacy in Lakewood. John’s Shop Rite Pharmacy, 4333 South St., has been serving residents of Long Beach, Lakewood and the surrounding area since 1984.
The independently owned and operated pharmacy has diversified its offerings and partnered with insurance companies, such as Blue Shield of California, to provide services that will educate and help patients through their health journey. The business’s officials say it hopes to be a model for the “future of pharmacy.”
John’s Shop Rite Pharmacy is not alone.
Many of the challenges John’s Shop Rite is facing, in fact, are also being felt by community pharmacies across the state, according to Blue Shield of California officials. The health plan provider has been working with California pharmacies to navigate these issues, which include the rising costs of drugs, shifts in personalized care, increased demand for administering immunizations and other injectables, and diversifying products and offerings.
As a result of the changing industry, community pharmacists have felt their bandwidth and margins tighten, which has led many of them to transform their work or close their doors, according to Blue Shield officials. Knowing this, the health plan provider rolled out additional support for pharmacists, including integration with cost transparency tools – to help both patients and pharmacies.
“The challenges facing community pharmacies and pharmacies in general are really substantial,” Salina Wong, senior director of pharmacy strategy and operations at Blue Shield, said in an interview. “Pharmacies that are able to diversify and differentiate, they’re the ones who are going to be more highly sought after to collaborate, like John’s Shop Rite.”
Community pharmacies are crucial, said Ramsey Halim, pharmacist and owner of John’s Shop Rite, because they provide personal services to patients.
“We take the time with patients in regard to talking to them; all the patients that come here, we know their needs and know them by first name,” Halim said in a recent interview. “We are a hub for patients to be able to get their vaccines, be able to pick up medications and get educated on their medication. It is the easiest access our patients have to health.”
After graduating pharmacy school, Halim took over John’s Shop Rite from his father in 2020. The landscape of community pharmacies was already different from when Halim had seen it growing up, after his father took over in 1990, h said. As patients from different generations came in, their needs were different. Some appreciated the personal services and others wanted the quick in-and-out type of services, Halim said.
Other challenges the local pharmacy faced were more competition and changes in the reimbursements from insurance, he said.
“They pay us close to nothing for prescriptions,” Halim said. “So, it’s hard to give that personal service to patients when you’re not being reimbursed for it. There were a lot of challenges when I came in, honestly, and I kind of catered ideas and thoughts of what we could do to reestablish and regrow our business to what it once was.”
John’s Shop Rite Pharmacy in Lakewood has partnered with insurance companies, such as Blue Shield of California, to provide a variety of health care services to patients in the greater Long Beach area. (Photo courtesy of Blue Shield of California)
John’s Shop Rite Pharmacy in Lakewood has partnered with insurance companies, such as Blue Shield of California, to provide a variety of health care services to patients in the greater Long Beach area. (Photo courtesy of Blue Shield of California)
John’s Shop Rite Pharmacy in Lakewood has partnered with insurance companies, such as Blue Shield of California, to provide a variety of health care services to patients in the greater Long Beach area. (Photo courtesy of Blue Shield of California)
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John’s Shop Rite Pharmacy in Lakewood has partnered with insurance companies, such as Blue Shield of California, to provide a variety of health care services to patients in the greater Long Beach area. (Photo courtesy of Blue Shield of California)
As part of Blue Shield’s effort to provide members with improved experiences, according to a recent company press release, community pharmacists within the insurance giant’s network are now focused on improving health care in areas such as blood pressure management; diabetes detection, management and reversal; and prescription drug adherence – which means educating patients about taking their medication correctly as prescribed by their health care provider.
“The reality is that pharmacists have consistently been the most underutilized professionals in the health care team, but they have so much expertise,” Wong said. “There are so many of them that they can really improve our members’ experience and patient experience across the board in navigating their benefits. We need to ensure that these professionals remain highly accessible, especially in the communities where they’re most familiar with the local providers and the services that are available to the populations that they serve.
“So that’s why, for us,” she added, “community pharmacies continue to be an important contributor to the health care experience.”
Once John’s Shop Rite began collaborating with Blue Shield, the pharmacy started offering those clinical services, Halim said. They help patients navigate their health by coordinating with their doctors to ensure medications are what they need.
In one case, for example, a patient’s physician prescribed a prescription drug to decrease their potassium levels, according to the Blue Shield press release. But the pharmacists at John’s Shop Rite realized that the increase in potassium was from another drug, focused on improving the patient’s blood pressure. From there, the team reached out to the physician to develop a more holistic care plan to address the patient’s blood pressure and potassium concerns.
The local pharmacy, with help from Blue Shield, also works with patients to ensure they can afford their medications, Halim said.
“One big one which Blue Shield stepped up on was helping patients get affordable medications,” Halim said. “They have a program where we work with their patients called Gemini Health.
“We are able to go into that program and put their information and see what alternative medications Blue Shield will cover for them at a much lower cost,” Halim added. “That has (had) a big impact for a lot of patients.”
Something else that John’s Shop Rite has done to diversify its offerings is adding a medical supplies showroom to allow patients to test products before they commit to making a purchase, Halim said.
All these efforts have helped John’s Shop Rite grow, Halim said. In 2020, the pharmacy only had five employees, he said. But partnering with Blue Shield was catalyst for the pharmacy — which now has 25 people on the team.
Besides John’s Shop Rite, Blue Shield has also helped APNI Health in the San Gabriel Valley and Avina Health in Bakersfield. The health plan provider’s mission is to make sure there are more pharmacists available and accessible to patients, and that they are doing clinical pharmacy work, not just dispensing prescription drugs, Wong said.
While Blue Shield is working to support community pharmacies, more people and health plans need to support that work as well, Wong said. The health plan provider is investing resources in advocacy at state and federal levels to improve regulatory policies, and also encouraging community members to utilize the valued resources available at community pharmacies.
“One of the things that we hear often from our pharmacy partners is that they’re really grateful that Blue Shield of California is stepping into this space and being their advocate and helping to drive a needed change in the industry, and all for the purpose of making sure we advance a whole-person approach to health and that it’s humanistic,” Wong said. “We really are looking for everyone to lean in and help us crack the code here and make health care more accessible and more affordable. That’s ultimately what we’re looking to do.”
As for the future of community pharmacies, Halim said he hopes they survive and continue providing affordable and accessible health care services for people in the community.
“It’s really hard to survive now as an independent pharmacy,” Halim said. “It’s important for us to find other things to help sustain our business and stay open for the community.”