{"id":410248,"date":"2026-08-18T23:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T23:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/410248\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T23:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T23:18:16","slug":"houston-mo-pharmacy-set-to-close-another-prepares-for-more-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/410248\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston, Mo., pharmacy set to close, another prepares for more patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">HOUSTON, Mo. (KY3) &#8211; Hutcheson Pharmacy in Houston, Mo., is closing its doors, and another pharmacy in town says it is preparing for more customers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Pharmacy leaders say the closure comes as Missouri has lost hundreds of small community pharmacies over the last two decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jeremy Rinne, owner of Forbes Pharmacy in Houston, said, \u201cPharmacy is one of your leading providers, so to see pharmacies close is never a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Forbes Pharmacy prepares for new patients<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As Hutcheson Pharmacy prepares to close, patients need somewhere else to go. Rinne said he is already welcoming them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rinne said, \u201cWe\u2019ve seen an influx of people; you know there\u2019s just two pharmacies over there now so people have the choice between us at Forbes Pharmacy as the independent or going to Walmart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hospital cites budget, staffing in closure decision<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In a statement on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcmh.org\/texas-county-memorial-hospital-hutcheson-pharmacy-to-close-in-august\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tcmh.org\/texas-county-memorial-hospital-hutcheson-pharmacy-to-close-in-august\/\">website<\/a>, Texas County Memorial Hospital said manufacturing restrictions, staffing shortages and changing patient use led to the decision, while the pharmacy was also operating above budget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Texas County Memorial Hospital CEO Bill Bridges said closing the pharmacy will allow the hospital to redirect money to other healthcare services.<\/p>\n<p>Statewide decline in small pharmacies<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Missouri has seen a broader decline in small pharmacies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ron Fitzwater, CEO of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, said, \u201cWe\u2019ve lost over 200 small community pharmacies since I\u2019ve been here, so in the last 24 years. We had a little over 600, and now we\u2019re down below 400.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Fitzwater blames much of that decline on Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs. He said these middlemen manage prescription plans, but often reimburse local pharmacies less than what the drugs actually cost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Fitzwater said, \u201cSometimes in the networks that they sign into, they\u2019re forced to take scripts that they know they\u2019re not going to get reimbursed even the cost of the drug, much less their professional fee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Association pushes for PBM regulation<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Missouri Pharmacy Association is pushing state lawmakers for stronger regulation of PBMs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">For those affected by Hutcheson\u2019s closure, Rinne said his focus now is making the transition as smooth as possible. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Hutcheson Pharmacy will officially close on Friday, August 21. Texas County Memorial Hospital said patients with active prescriptions are getting help transferring their medicine to any pharmacy they choose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">To report a correction or typo, please email <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ky3.com\/2026\/08\/18\/houston-mo-pharmacy-set-close-another-prepares-more-patients\/mailto:digitalnews@ky3.com\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">digitalnews@ky3.com<\/a>. Please include the article info in the subject line of the email.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KY3. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Mo. (KY3) &#8211; Hutcheson Pharmacy in Houston, Mo., is closing its doors, and another pharmacy in town&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[143307,56,58,143306,57,143305,143308],"class_list":["post-410248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-forbes-pharmacy-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-missouri","tag-houston-news","tag-hutcheson-pharmacy-closure","tag-rural-pharmacy-closure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}