Small pharmacies are under financial pressure just when they're needed most: 'The math doesn't work'

Richard Ost has run Philadelphia Pharmacy in the city’s Kensington neighborhood since 1983. It’s the one you can’t miss for the bright blue mural that washes over the building. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, he made some changes: He hired more drivers to deliver prescriptions, bought masks for his employees, and hired another person to keep watch over the entryway and provide masks to customers who don’t have them.

People still need their prescriptions, and Ost is delivering them, for free, at a clip of 150 customers per day, up from 20 to 30 before. But when he looked at the books last month, amid lower drug reimbursements and fees that kicked in before the crisis, Ost and his wife wondered if it was time to retire.

Then Ost resigned himself to the 2020 reality: His business will lose money this year.

“I’m looking at it like the next six months are a charity operation,” Ost said. "Let’s give back to the community that has provided to us over the years.”

Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/business/independent-pharmacies-coronavirus-pbms-20200422.html