Beaver County Times: Local pharmacies important to the community

By Jennifer Riley, Patients Come First Pennsylvania Executive Director

Across Beaver County, families rely on local pharmacies for far more than prescriptions.

They rely on pharmacists they know and trust for guidance, vaccines, and help navigating an increasingly complicated health care system. That is why state Rep. Rob Matzie’s attention to the challenges facing local pharmacists and patient access matters.

Throughout Pennsylvania, community pharmacies are being squeezed by pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, the middlemen in the prescription drug system that decide how pharmacies are reimbursed. Too often, those reimbursement rates fail to cover the actual cost of the medication, leaving pharmacies with an impossible choice: operate at a loss or close their doors.

Read the full LTE in Beaver County Times here.