HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – Pharmacy First on Whitesburg Drive closed its doors this week. It’s another North Alabama pharmacy location to close amid a nationwide issue.
Pharmacy technician Jennifer Potts said she is torn up about.
“I’ve cried a lot about it, I’m really upset about it,” she said. “A lot of our patients are elderly and need extra help, and I’ve really enjoyed helping them throughout the years.”
The local pharmacy is*yet another pharmacy to close its doors as nationally, pharmacy chains like Walgreens and CVS are closing stores.
Potts said the rise in medicine costs and difficulty getting them are to blame.
“It takes four to six weeks for us to get reimbursed, and if we have to order medicine, we have to wait for that money to come in,” she said.
She’s worried this same problem will soon hit other local independent pharmacies, something she said would be a huge blow to the community.
“It’s just like family,” she said. “You know everyone on a one on one level, and you can talk about anything. People talk to him about baseball, football, and fishing and stay here for hours. They’re talking to a friend. Even he’s their pharmacist, he’s their friend first.”
Trent Mclemore with Star Pharmacy has the same fear.
“Pharmacies are not closing because they want to,” he said. “Pharmacies are closing because they have no better option. A colleague of mine once told me that an independent pharmacist will fill prescriptions until the die or they go out business. Right now. it’s the latter.”
He said disputes between pharmacists and insurance companies creates different prices for customers, thus different incomes for pharmacies.
He’s asking for change to Alabama law for pharmacy transparency.
“I don’t know anywhere else where you can open a business and wonder what you’re going to get paid for something you’d sell,” he said. “All the states around us have passed laws. I just don’t know why we can’t here.”
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