02/24/2024
To our wonderful patients and the West Jefferson Community:
Many people have asked why the pharmacies closed.
We closed, because we had an emergency.
We found someone to take our files so our patients would be taken care of. As of the end of business, Monday, February 5, 2024, all files were transferred to the closest Walgreens.
PBM-Pharmacy Benefit Managers’ Abuses, which there are many, put us out of business.
The PBMs have abused us since I became an owner 25-years ago. However, around 2016, reimbursements started to go down even further (often paying less than what we pay for drugs!). This created serious financial challenges. The decreased reimbursements, along with the DIR CLAWBACK PBM scheme, made a tough situation impossible.
The DIR CLAWBACK scheme involves an arbitrary system of paying pharmacies less than what the insurance companies say they’ll pay at the point of sale by taking money out of our checks. Last year, DIR CLAWBACKS stole more than $544,000 from our four stores. This is an entirely impossible situation all independent pharmacies are in.
We owned four stores and were having the same problem at each location. We weren’t making enough to cover the costs of operations, because money was being stolen directly from our checks by the PBMs.
We had plenty of business, but the business we had didn’t cover our costs to operate. We served 10,000 unique people in 2023. Across our four stores, in 2023, we filled over 170,000 prescriptions and gave thousands of vaccines. We employed about 50 people and had about $12 million in gross sales for 2023.
It is not true that we were not supported locally or that the little guy cannot compete against the giant corporations. Our people supported us and we had more business this year than ever before. The problem is that this is not a fair playing field. The PBMs dictate what we are paid and steal from us, so that we cannot succeed. No matter how busy we are.
My line of credit (LOC) was over-extended and my supplier wouldn’t ship medicines to me if I couldn’t pay them.
We had an emergency.
Our pharmacies are financially ruined by the greed of the PBMs. Our patients have lost vital access to pharmacies in their communities. In three of the rural locations, there are no other pharmacies.
Anyone wishing to advocate for the community pharmacy against these "crimes," please reach out to me as your voices need to be heard to protect existing businesses from these atrocities. Call or text me. More businesses like ours are also struggling with these issues.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last 25 plus years (almost 8 years in West Jeff). This was my dream from pharmacy school and the life that Robin and I created. We could not have done it without all of you. We are so sorry that we could not save the stores, because we know how much our patients need healthcare resources like those we provided. Please continue to contact me if you need help.
We will miss everyone. We cannot believe this is how it ended.
Joe Craft
614-893-3784
