PrimeRx Blog

Back-to-school shopping is a rite of passage for millions of American families, with total spending on school preparations expected to exceed $128 billion during 2025. Many of the products that will fill students’ backpacks can be found on the pharmacy shelves, making pharmacies uniquely positioned for one-stop shopping. By taking advantage of PrimeRx MARKET online purchasing capabilities, and functionality offered through the PrimeRx pharmacy management system, pharmacies can establish themselves as back-to-school destinations. Innovations in AI and pharmacy are also helping pharmacies strengthen efficiency and better serve families during busy seasons like back-to-school.

Among the more notable findings of the 2024 Pharmacist Workforce Study, sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), was a sense among 76 percent of community pharmacists who agreed with the statement “I never seem to have enough time to get everything done at work.”

UNIONDALE, N.Y., July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PrimeRx, a leader in pharmacy management solutions, is delighted to announce the achievement of SOC 2 Type II compliance. This certification highlights our commitment to the highest standards in data security and operational reliability for pharmacy owners and their patients, as defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Compliance requirements are an integral part of the pharmacist’s role in controlled substance dispensing. Pharmacists understand the importance of good compliance, which typically includes extensive recordkeeping and documentation requirements, coding protocols, and inventory controls, among other mandates. So it likely came as no surprise when, in July 2025, the HALT Fentanyl Act became law with several provisions for enhanced pharmacy compliance.

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy offers a “Top Ten” list of reasons why people choose to become pharmacists. Topping the list are sentiments that pharmacists would likely agree with, things like “I want to help people get well,” “I like to work directly with patients,” and “I enjoy a wide variety of career opportunities.” Not included on the list though, is something that has become a critically important part of pharmacy ownership – the need for marketing expertise.

Warm weather can mean fun plans for summer travel and some well-earned rest and relaxation. Too often though, Americans overlook the need to include travel medicines and vaccinations on their packing lists. This can have unintended consequences including vacation days spent in bed, time wasted seeking help from a travel clinic, or bringing home an infectious disease as an unwanted souvenir.

One of the more egregious – and heartbreaking – realities in today’s healthcare environment is the direct link between access to care and positive health outcomes. Officially, the conditions that stand in the way of healthcare access are called social determinants of health (SDOC), and include factors that are hard to control. Things like a person’s race, quality of education, economic security, or whether a person speaks English, or has access to public transportation. As the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) explains, “when people have limited access to resources they need to be healthy, they are more likely to experience health issues.”

Pharmacy-based organizations were quick to sound the alarm when President Donald Trump announced plans for a 25% tariff increase on pharmaceutical imports.

As the nation’s pharmacists are well aware, Ozempic is hot. And so are Wegovy, Rybelsus, Zepbound, and Mounjaro. So hot, that spending on these drugs, which all fall within the GLP-1 classification, increased by 500% between 2018 and 2023, with a value projected to exceed $100 billion by 2030.

Although May is officially designated as “Mental Health Awareness Month,” pharmacists understand that attention to good mental health is a 24/7 proposition. According to the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), pharmacy staff members “are more likely to need to respond to a mental health episode than to a situation requiring basic life support or CPR.”

Last year more than 300 million patient records were compromised as the direct result of data breaches. In fact, 2024 set a new record, with 26% more healthcare-affiliated entities reporting breaches than during 2023. This included the catastrophic cyberattack on United Healthcare subsidiary Change Healthcare, which affected more than 190 million people, and resulted in a $22 million ransomware payment. As these statistics make clear, when it comes to pharmacy data management, all warnings are flashing red and data security simply must be a top priority.

A funny thing happened when the U.S. Congress, through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), capped out-of-pocket costs for Medicare patients: Fewer prescriptions were abandoned, resulting in more patients obtaining needed medications.

The financial news is not good for the nation’s independent pharmacies. The 2024 NCPA Digest reported that gross profit margins fell to an all-time low of 19.7% during 2023, “the lowest point in the NCPA Digest Report’s 10-year lookback window.” The decline is driven by factors including reduced reimbursement rates, increased drug costs, arbitrary pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices, and the overall effects of inflation.