TUESDAY, Dec. 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Almost 30 percent of U.S. pharmacies operating during 2010 to 2021 had closed by 2021, according to a study published in the December issue of Health Affairs.

Jenny S. Guadamuz, Ph.D., from the University of California in Berkley, and colleagues examined the number and percentage of pharmacy closures during 2010 to 2021 by linking data from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs for all U.S. retail pharmacies to county-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics and ZIP Code Tabulation Area data from the American Community Survey.

The researchers found that 29.4 percent of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating during 2010 to 2020 had closed by 2021. Compared with White neighborhoods, the risk for closure was higher for pharmacies in predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods. Across all neighborhood and market characteristics, independent pharmacies had a greater risk for closure than chain pharmacies.

“Federal, state, and local policies and programs should consider targeted strategies, including increases in Medicare Part D and Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement rates, to protect critical access pharmacies most at-risk for closure, particularly those serving neighborhoods that are or are at risk of becoming pharmacy deserts,” senior author Dima Mazen Qato, Pharm.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., of the USC Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, said in a statement.

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