PrimeRx Blog

Prescription costs have become one of the hardest parts of treatment for many patients, and researchers who studied prescription spending found that one in five people who filled a prescription in 2025 rationed their medicine because of cost. Some split doses, while others put off refills rather than pay the full price at the counter.

Although direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmacy models have been around for years, they have gained traction in recent months, namely as the Trump Administration has made it easier for pharmaceutical manufacturers to participate. The Administration’s goal is to reduce drug costs by selling prescription drugs directly to patients, thereby circumventing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and wholesalers.

Data-based pharmacy reports provide an invaluable way for pharmacists to gain insight into key performance areas, including profitability, staffing, inventory, dispensing, and patient outcomes. Reports also help identify trends in patient behavior and detect “red flags” about potential problems and weaknesses.

Today’s pharmacy is nothing if not resilient, as demonstrated by the growing use of alternative medications to address drug shortages and other types of supply chain disruptions. Whereas in the past a disruption would have a debilitating effect, pharmacies now have options for offering alternative conventional medications along with therapies that fall outside what is considered “mainstream medicine.”

Pharmacies have spent the better part of a decade absorbing pressure that other industries felt only briefly during the pandemic, and the people inside each pharmacy responsible for ordering medications and tracking inventory have felt it most. Their daily work of finding the right drug at the right cost has gotten harder as prices move week to week and reimbursement from pharmacy benefit managers keeps tightening.

Independent pharmacies across the country are working under operating conditions that look very different from a decade ago. The 2025 NCPA Digest reported a ten-year high in cost of goods and a ten-year low in gross profits across the $103 billion independent pharmacy market.In other words, pharmacy owners are paying more to stock their shelves while keeping less of each prescription they fill.

The statistics tell the story. Pharmacist burnout rates in excess of 60%. Nearly half of pharmacists are dissatisfied with their jobs, and 75% percent citing increased work volume as the primary reason. Even worse, 60% of pharmacists said that job pressures could jeopardize safe patient care.

Today’s pharmacy is a busy place, with pharmacists regularly citing “not enough hours in the day” as a key concern. And the situation is poised to get worse, as pharmacists take on larger roles in patient care, providing clinical services and promoting overall health outcomes.

A pharmacy used to feel like one of the more ordinary places of healthcare. A prescription was sent in, a patient stopped by after work, and someone behind the counter helped make sure the medication made sense.Over time, that familiar errand became part of a much bigger business, as CVS and Walgreens expanded across the country and used thousands of locations to negotiate drug costs that smaller pharmacies rarely qualify for.

Today’s busy pharmacist wears many hats, including counselor, dispenser, vaccinator, office manager, educator, and boss, to name a few. Fortunately, though, as the pharmacy industry has become more complex, technological advancements have kept pace, allowing pharmacists to better focus on managing their many roles. Most noteworthy is the pharmacy ecosystem, through which the many parts of the pharmacy operate within a single platform.

Spring Fever means different things to different people, but for the millions of Americans afflicted with seasonal allergies, the promise of warmer weather and sunny days is overshadowed by the arrival of dreaded symptoms, including itchy eyes, runny noses, and nasal congestion. And with most sufferers opting to find relief through the over-the-counter (OTC) allergy medications and products commonly found on pharmacy shelves, community pharmacists are essential players.

The good news is that Americans are living longer than ever, with an average life expectancy of 78.4 years. But the not-so-good news is that the golden years aren’t so golden for everyone. Instead, the U.S. faces a “crisis” in meeting the specialized services and needs of elderly Americans, needs that include long-term care (LTC), pharmaceutical services, chronic care management, clinical services, medication therapy, medication coverage, and patient engagement, to name a few. LTC pharmacy services, for example, are often disrupted by a lack of cohesion among caregivers, due largely to reliance on siloed technology systems that don’t “talk” to each other and block critical information exchange.

Pharmacy school doesn’t include a course on pharmacy marketing, but maybe it should. That’s because, as high-profile chains and internet pharmacies bombard patients with social media ads, digital advertising, and other types of marketing messages, independent pharmacies – especially new businesses -- can be overshadowed.

Think about the volume of data that comes into the pharmacy each day. Comprehensive data on patient information, medications, adherence barriers, patient outcomes, patient safety, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and compliance, to name a few, including actionable pharmacy reports that bring this data together.

More than 50% of U.S. adults experience two or more chronic conditions, a figure that represents roughly 130 million Americans. Diagnosis of a single chronic condition is reason enough for concern, but two or more conditions can be a scary, confusing, and economically challenging proposition. Pharmacies can alleviate these concerns by offering Chronic Care Management (CCM) services, which can be a tremendous help to patients.