Across Pennsylvania, more communities are becoming pharmacy deserts — areas where residents no longer have a nearby pharmacy they can rely on. When a local pharmacy closes, patients often have to travel farther just to fill a prescription or speak with a pharmacist.

Pharmacy benefit managers are a major reason this is happening.

Pharmacy benefit managers control how pharmacies are reimbursed for prescriptions, and many independent pharmacies are forced to accept payments that barely cover their costs. At the same time, pharmacy benefit managers often steer patients toward large pharmacy chains that they own or are affiliated with. That puts small, community pharmacies at a serious disadvantage.

Some leaders in Washington, D.C., have been focusing their attention on proposals such as foreign price-setting after President Donald Trump raised the issue nationally. But even if most-favored-nation models lower overall prices, it does nothing to address the problems created by pharmacy benefit managers.

Price-setting won’t fix the fact that pharmacy benefit managers can underpay local pharmacies or steer patients toward their own networks.

Continuing to reform pharmacy benefit managers is a much better solution. Holding these intermediaries accountable would not only help lower patients’ out-of-pocket costs but also give independent pharmacies a fair chance to stay open.

That would be a real win for communities across Pennsylvania.

Tom Acri

Lower Paxton Township

Dauphin County

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