29 Iowa Pharmacies Closed in 2024 – PBM Reform Needed to Save Our Pharmacies

• By: IPA
• On: 01/20/2025 09:29:00
• In: Press Releases
• Comments: 0

Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are powerful, anti-competitive middlemen in the pharmacy supply chain, originally created to provide real-time claim adjudication between pharmacies and health plans. Over the years, PBMs have been allowed to operate largely unregulated, with three PBMs dominating nearly 80% of Americans' prescription drug benefit.¹

PBMs control pharmacies and patients alike, driving up the cost of medications for their own financial gain. Their contracts often limit patient choice, requiring consumers to use PBM-owned pharmacies. PBMs also use opaque reimbursement models, often reimbursing pharmacies less than the cost of a drug and the services provided to dispense it. As a result of PBM practices, pharmacies in Iowa and across the country are forced to close.

In 2024, 29 Iowa pharmacies closed their doors, affecting both rural and urban communities from Sioux City to Burlington. Across the country, 2,300 pharmacies closed in 2024, with approximately half being independent community pharmacies or small to mid-sized chain pharmacies.² Since 2014, 204 Iowa pharmacies have closed, creating pharmacy deserts and limiting access to care. This leads to missed patient touchpoints and routine healthcare services, including immunizations and chronic disease care, which can lead to worsened patient health.

With the start of the 2025 Iowa Legislative Session, the Iowa Pharmacy Association is focused on ensuring patient access to pharmacy services through meaningful PBM reform. The legislature must take action to pass a meaningful PBM reform bill, including adequate state licensure, fair reimbursement for prescriptions and strengthened appeals, network adequacy and any willing provider language, as well as provisions to protect patient choice. Pharmacists are trusted and accessible healthcare providers in local communities. PBM reform must occur now to ensure Iowans have access to local pharmacies and pharmacist care.
 

1. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/pharmacy-benefit-managers-staff-report.pdf
2. https://benjaminjolley.substack.com/p/2275-pharmacies-have-closed-so-far