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Local pharmacies are struggling- even during a global pandemic.
Independent pharmacists rallied outside the State Capitol this week calling for the legislature to pass bills they say will ensure that they are protected moving forward.
Many pharmacies across the state have been forced to close due to the financial ramifications of the pandemic. The focus of the bills is to ensure reimbursement is happening properly.
“All the while neighborhood pharmacies are struggling to survive,” Thomas D’Angelo, president of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York said. “And it’s because of the greedy corporate middlemen, known as PBMs. They are parasites of the healthcare system.”
When you see the word specialty drug, it usually just means expensive, and [pharmacy benefit managers] are just steering the profitable medications to their own pharmacies, D Angelo said.
PBMs such as Optum have their own specialty pharmacies, and by locking patients into mail orders, patients are unable to obtain those drugs at the independent or mom-and-pop pharmacy of their choice, even though the location would be capable of filling that prescription, he said. They re trying to keep all of the revenue within their system, he added.
Bill sponsor Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner, who serves a district in the Bronx, said the legislation protects consumers ability to choose how they want to receive their prescription medications whether in-store or by mail.
Although independent pharmacists in New York lauded the development, pharmacy benefit managers said the bill would increase costs for employers and patients and compromise patient safety.
If the Pfizer COVID vaccine receives final approval by the FDA Friday, New York could get in a shipment of the vaccine as soon as Sunday.
The owner of Rockville Centre Pharmacy, Howard Jacobson, said he is willing to hire more staff, expand hours and even go to people s homes in order to give them the vaccine. Whatever we have to do in order to get this job done, he said.
Earlier this month, the President of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York (PSSNY) sent a letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urging him to make sure the vaccine is distributed equitably.