As Walgreens closes multiple stores in San Francisco, Supervisor Jackie Fielder proposes a pharmacy cooperative network to maintain access to essential services. This initiative aims to support community health after Walgreens' exit, particularly affecting underserved neighborhoods. The proposed report, to be prepared by the city's Budget and Legislative Analyst, will focus on potential collaboration between independent and city-run pharmacies, regulation of pharmacy benefit managers, and challenges faced by independent pharmacies due to reimbursement issues from insurers.
"Here in the U.S., where our healthcare has been put in the hands of profit-seeking corporations, where retail pharmacies like Walgreens are perpetually understaffed if not shuttered, people have to take several buses, wait in long lines, and organize their whole days around filling a prescription," said Fielder in a statement. "It doesn't have to be this way."
The report would also dig into how state laws can regulate "pharmacy benefit managers," a middle entity between pharmacies, health plans and drug manufacturers.
Independent pharmacists say these middlemen are a major reason for their struggles in recent years. Pharmacy benefit managers control how much pharmacies are reimbursed from insurers for a drug.
At the same time, pharmacy owners and advocates decry what they call arbitrary fees attached to every prescription. In the end, the amounts pharmacies are reimbursed are lower than, or just about at cost, for the drugs dispensed.
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