PrimeRx Blog

Right on schedule, the first cycle of the new Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program (MDPNP) took effect on January 1, 2026, imposing a “maximum fair price” on 10 specific drugs dispensed to Medicare Part D beneficiaries. As predicted, the program has generated concern and confusion among independent pharmacies, with reduced payments, new compliance requirements, and growing cash-flow challenges reshaping how pharmacies operate in the new pricing era.

As winter storms threaten communities across the country, emergency preparedness is once again top of mind for public officials, healthcare providers, and community pharmacies. Severe winter storms have repeatedly shown how quickly normal pharmacy operations can be disrupted. Power outages, impassable roads, and temporary closures can limit patient access to medications and make it difficult for pharmacies to retrieve critical records if systems are not properly protected.

Pharmacists begin 2026 faced with several regulatory and procedural changes that will affect profitability. Specifically, this includes changes to PBM reimbursement practices, price reductions on several popular medications, and payer plan reforms, to name a few. Each has the potential to seriously affect pharmacy profitability, but fallout can be mitigated by leveraging functionality offered through an efficient software management system.

Pharmacists will ring in 2026 with a series of regulatory and compliance changes that ensure a busy start to the new year. And even more changes may be on the horizon, with healthcare spending and drug pricing currently front burner issues for both the U.S. Congress and the Trump Administration. It’s essential that pharmacists keep pace, and take advantage of the many tools available to help ensure full regulatory compliance.

Medicare Open Enrollment season arrived right on time in mid-October and will run through December 7. If history is any guide, the period may see more than 10 million Medicare beneficiaries make a coverage change, with millions more considering a change. Pharmacists have an important role in helping patients understand their options and deciding on their best course going forward.

If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that long-term care (LTC) pharmacies sit at the intersection of healthcare’s toughest realities: rising patient acuity, shrinking margins, and relentless administrative pressure. Every prescription tells the story of a system under strain; the one that depends on accuracy, speed, and human compassion all at once.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports more than 38 million Americans – roughly 10% of the population – have diabetes, with most, 90% to 95% diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D). So when new guidance is issued with regard to diabetes prevention and treatment, health professionals, including pharmacists, take note.

PrimeRx Enterprise and PrimeRx CLOUD are award-winning pharmacy management platforms, trusted by thousands of pharmacies nationwide to manage dispensing, inventory, communication, compliance, and reporting. PrimeRx Enterprise offers an on-premise solution for pharmacies that prefer localized control and direct system access, while PrimeRx CLOUD delivers the same robust capabilities through a secure, web-based platform.

For more than 60 years, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has gone about its work in relative obscurity, serving as an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on various vaccine-related matters. That all changed though, in June 2025, when U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all members of the committee, and again in September, when significant changes were announced regarding COVID-19 vaccine eligibility.

Could your pharmacy benefit from saving $10,000, $20,000, or even $80,000 per month? Of course it could, and those amounts are actual savings reported by community pharmacies that rely on the PrimeRx MARKET online marketplace for competitive purchases of medications and supplies. Going forward, PrimeRx MARKET is fully integrated with the PrimeRx pharmacy management system, which means pharmacists can manage the purchasing process without having to interrupt the dispensing workflow.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lists December-February as peak flu season, with September-October the “ideal” time for preventative influenza vaccines. But pharmacists know that patients start to feel the dreaded aches and pains, coughs and fevers, long before then. This year, as always, pharmacists can expect increased demand for annual “rites of fall,” which include flu vaccines and related medications, OTC products, and supplies.

Uniondale, NY — [September 16, 2025] — PrimeRx, a leading pharmacy management solutions provider, announced its first-ever user conference, Xplore 2025, taking place October 10–11, 2025, at The Westin Jersey City Newport. This event will unite independent pharmacy owners and healthcare industry leaders for two days of insights, networking, and innovation.

In July 2025, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released statistics confirming what many pharmacists have long suspected: Vaccine rates are on the decline, and at an alarming rate among America’s school age children. The decrease in immunizations has resulted, at least in part, to an uptick in vaccine-preventable diseases including pertussis measles.

It’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast of the United States, leaving a trail of chaos that extended from Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama. While the destruction from that storm, which at its peak reached Category 5 intensity, has been well documented, smart officials are looking to use the lessons of Katrina to ensure readiness and proper precautions for future storms. This includes the impact the storm had on community pharmacies, and patients who were shut off from regular access to those pharmacies, and their needed medications.

Cold and flu season arrived right on time this year, and it will once again fall to the nation’s pharmacists to provide Americans with the immunizations, medications, and supplies that will keep them healthy and comfortable in the coming months. As pharmacists prepare to ramp up efforts to increase vaccination rates and remind patients about good hygiene and other illness-avoiding tactics, they will face a few twists, namely a spike in COVID-19 infection rates, new guidance for COVID-19 immunizations, and for the first time, patient access to a nasal spray alternative for flu immunizations.