{"id":146812,"date":"2026-03-24T09:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T09:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146812\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T09:57:07","slug":"why-pa-pharmacies-keep-closing-and-how-lawmakers-want-to-slow-the-trend-explained-in-7-stats-pennsylvania-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146812\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pa. pharmacies keep closing and how lawmakers want to slow the trend, explained in 7 stats | Pennsylvania News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotlight PA<\/a>\u00a0is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 Since July, Spotlight PA has written several stories about hundreds of pharmacy closures across Pennsylvania and how they force patients to travel further, wait longer, or simply go without medications they rely on.<\/p>\n

One reason our news organization has continued reporting on the issue is the reaction we\u2019ve received from so many people across the state.\u00a0About 30 readers reached out after our initial story<\/a>, many describing their own problems.<\/p>\n

There are also many different aspects to dive into, including how state lawmakers have tried to rein in pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the corporate middlemen frequently blamed for the closures. Critics say these businesses drive up drug costs for patients, offer insufficient reimbursement to pharmacies, and use predatory practices \u2014 all while prioritizing their own profits.<\/p>\n

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents pharmacy benefit managers, has pushed back on the criticisms. A spokesperson for the association recently told Spotlight PA that employers and unions hire PBMs \u201cto negotiate lower drug prices and create more access to affordable medicines for patients\u201d and that PBMs \u201cdepend on a healthy network of independent pharmacies in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are some numbers that stand out from our coverage these past months:<\/p>\n

1,100\u00a0\u2014 about how many licensed Pennsylvania pharmacies went out of business from early 2020 to early November of last year, according\u00a0to a Spotlight PA analysis of Department of State records<\/a>. While some new ones opened, the data showed a net loss of hundreds of pharmacies.<\/p>\n

9\u00a0\u2014 rural counties that would experience the biggest percentage declines in total pharmacies if all Rite Aid locations were to close without a replacement,\u00a0according to an analysis from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.<\/a>\u00a0The data was as of May 2025. The counties stood to each lose 20 percent or more of their total number of pharmacies.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u2013 big pharmacy benefit managers that dominate the industry. Those companies manage 79 percent of prescription drug claims for about 270 million people, according to a\u00a02024 interim staff report from the Federal Trade Commission<\/a>. The report raised concerns that these and other \u201cpowerful middlemen may be profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.\u201d<\/p>\n

24%\u00a0\u2014 about how much of Pennsylvania\u2019s health insurance market is covered by Act 77, a 2024 law that promised support to Pennsylvania pharmacies and accountability for PBMs. Included are commercial plans that people buy on their own or that their employer purchases. Those figures are according to Pennsylvania Insurance Department estimates.<\/p>\n

6\u00a0\u2014 state senators, including Republicans and Democrats, who signed\u00a0letters<\/a>\u00a0over the summer that\u00a0raised concerns<\/a>\u00a0about how two state agencies under Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro were handling oversight and accountability for pharmacy benefit managers. The Shapiro administration has defended its approach, both for prescriptions filled through\u00a0commercial plans\u00a0<\/a>and ones under the\u00a0state\u2019s Medicaid program<\/a>\u00a0for low-income residents.<\/p>\n

21\u00a0\u2014 state senators who signed an\u00a0October letter raising more bipartisan concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u2014 Republican state senators who in February proposed giving\u00a0Pennsylvania\u2019s attorney general<\/a>\u00a0more power to take on pharmacy benefit managers.<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO\u2026\u00a0If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at\u00a0spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by\u00a0foundations and readers like you<\/a>\u00a0who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spotlight PA\u00a0is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3727,45887,36872,66935,28,30,29,66936,66933,13255,66934,13254],"class_list":["post-146812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-closure","tag-medication","tag-patients","tag-pbms","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pharmaceutical-care-management-association","tag-pharmacies","tag-pharmacy","tag-pharmacy-benefit-managers","tag-rite-aid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}