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The NCPA Digest...found that the industry in 2020 represented 34% of all retail pharmacies in the United States and a $67.1 billion marketplace...

...total number of independent pharmacies, which is 19,397 as of June 2021. The store count...of 21,683 in 2019.

Ninety-five percent of independent community pharmacy...identified their primary pharmacy operation as retail pharmacy. Nearly 5% identified as compounding, long-term care, or specialty.

Between 2014-20, the generic dispense rate increased from 80% to 86%.

Seventy-four percent of community pharmacies serve population areas of 50,000 or fewer.

3,483 pharmacies are participating in the CPESN USA national network of clinically integrated pharmacies.

...2020, average prescription volume was 57,648 per store, a very slight increase from the 57,414 prescriptions dispensed in 2019.

Government programs continue to grow in importance, with 55% of total prescriptions covered by the Medicare Part D and Medicaid programs.

The top four point-of-care services provided are SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing (32%), blood glucose (24%), influenza (24%), and rapid strep (22%)...READ MORE

The National Community Pharmacists Association is using social media, digital advertising, and a grassroots effort to push congressional budget makers to include a provision eliminating pharmacy benefit manager spread pricing under the Medicaid program and reimburse pharmacies in a fairer and more transparent manner...“PBM spread pricing costs federal and state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year. It does nothing to reduce the cost of drugs for Medicaid patients, and it drives local pharmacies out of business,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey...Spread pricing is what happens when pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, charge insurance plans like Medicaid one price for prescription medications, reimburse pharmacies that dispense them a much lower price, and then keep a big chunk of the difference for themselves...READ MORE

During the COVID-19 pandemic many hospitals and health care services teams turned to telepharmacy to reduce delays in providing medications to patients while social distancing practices were in place. Hospitals quickly found that telepharmacy benefitted pharmacy services by providing patients with more efficient access to medical care and reducing costs. Thus, hospitals were able to focus more on patient care and less on logistics, which led to higher turnaround times and increased patient satisfaction...READ MORE

Nevada will become one of the first states to allow pharmacists to prescribe human immunodeficiency virus prevention drugs to patients at risk of contracting the virus, as the state works to combat one of the highest rates of HIV diagnoses in the country...A bill signed by Gov. Steve Sisolak on June 6 authorizes pharmacists with sufficient liability coverage to prescribe, dispense and administer HIV prevention drugs — including post-exposure prophylaxis to people who may have come into contact with HIV and pre-exposure prophylaxis for people at risk — without a prescription from a practitioner starting as early as Oct. 1, in accordance with protocols to be developed by the State Board of Pharmacy over the next several months...READ MORE

Pharmacy operators including CVS Health Corp and Walmart Inc fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic by failing to stop massive quantities of addictive painkillers from reaching the black market, a lawyer for two Ohio counties said at the start of a trial...Mark Lanier told a federal jury in Cleveland hearing the first trial the pharmacy chains have faced in nationwide litigation over the epidemic that the companies bore responsibility for drug abuse in the counties of Lake and Trumbull..."They just dispensed like a vending machine," Lanier said in his opening statement...READ MORE

Results from a new HDA Research Foundation survey indicate that the pharmaceutical supply chain is entering a critical phase in achieving the transaction data connections required to comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act in 2023...The DSCSA requires transaction data with product identifiers to be provided with physical product on November 27, 2023...“many healthcare supply chain trading partners are realizing there is work to be done to establish proper business-to-business connections; ensure data are formatted, transmitted and received successfully; that processes for troubleshooting are created; and that products in inventory have the right data attached to them for shipping after November 27,” said Perry Fri...COO of the HDA Research Foundation. “The Foundation’s survey shows...what might be leading to slow implementation rates across the supply chain.”...READ MORE

Intermountain Healthcare will be shutting down 25 retail pharmacies and handing off their prescriptions and inventories to CVS Pharmacy beginning in August...Next month's closures target low-volume retail pharmacies in Utah, the Salt Lake City health system said...The companies stressed that the closures do not affect Intermountain’s hospital inpatient pharmacies...The nonprofit system will also be continuing its other pharmacy and medication services, including medication management and medication assistance and financial support. Home delivery pharmacy, specialty pharmacy and the retail pharmacy out of its Primary Children’s Hospital will also continue to be supported...READ MORE

National Community Pharmacists Association President Brian Caswell spoke to the Federal Trade Commission during its open meeting...about anticompetitive pharmacy benefit manager issues in the pharmaceutical supply chain...I have watched a steady increase of patients being forced or coerced into mail order which, more often than not, is owned by the (pharmacy benefit manager)...Also, a growing number of restricted medications which are classified as ‘specialty,’ with no clear clinical definition of why it is specialty, are contractually not allowed to be filled by the patient’s preferred pharmacist. Again, the prescription is steered towards the PBM’s own mail order....READ MORE

...“Why Pharmacies Overcharge,” an entertaining and provocative video on the pharmacy industry and its generic prescription pricing...It’s definitely worth your time...The video covers the history of pharmacy, from the “Soda Fountain Era” to “Lick, Stick, and Pour” to the rise of PBMs and GoodRx...READ MORE

Medicare Part D spent $2.6 billion more in 2018 on generic drugs compared to Costco, likely due to the inefficient distribution system...The study published...in the Journal of the American Medical Association focuses on how intermediaries in the generic drug supply chain may be driving up costs for Medicare. In 2018, 88% of Medicare Part D prescriptions were for generic drugs, the study said...“Our analysis highlighted the inefficiencies the current system introduces through its complex and opaque system of intermediaries, which Costco largely bypasses,”...READ MORE