The Lock Haven Express: A prescription for pharmacy closures

By Jennifer Riley, Patients Come First Pennsylvania Executive Director

Mill Hall Pharmacy closed in July after decades of serving local families. It delivered medications and gave patients a familiar pharmacist to call with questions. For local families, losing that kind of care is more than an inconvenience.

Clinton County had just seven licensed pharmacies as of May 2025, according to the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. That count predates Mill Hall's closure. Each loss raises the risk of a "pharmacy desert," an area where residents no longer have reasonable access to a local pharmacy.

Keeping the remaining pharmacies open means confronting a problem with pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Health plans hire PBMs to manage prescription benefits. They decide which pharmacies patients can use and how much those pharmacies are paid. Just three PBMs handle 79% of prescription drug claims nationwide, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That leaves a local pharmacy with little bargaining power.

Read the full LTE in The Lock Haven Express here.