When the Walgreens on Hoover Avenue in Dayton closes on April 1, patients like Chanel Maston will have to figure out where else close by to get their prescriptions.
“It's just sad. This is crazy. They just shut down everything on the west side of Dayton,” said Maston, who uses Walgreens to get not only her prescriptions but also groceries and household items.
Walgreens announced this month that the Westwood location in West Dayton would close, after announcing 150 closures last year.
This comes amidst hundreds of other drug stores closing down around the country over the past year. In the last two years, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens have closed over 1,500 stores nationwide.
In a statement to WYSO, Walgreens says that the Westwood location’s closure is due to a decline in foot traffic, leading to an unsustainable business performance.
“When faced with the difficult decision to close a location, several factors are taken into account, including our existing footprint of stores, dynamics of the local market, and changes in the buying habits of our patients and customers, among other reasons,” the statement read.
Pharmacy access
In West Dayton, the nearest other Walgreens location is approximately 15 minutes away by car and about an hour's walk.
A CVS pharmacy and a local drugstore, Ziks Pharmacy, are close by, but some customers said they want to stay within Walgreens because of their insurance.
Shoppers are concerned that this closure will lead to West Dayton becoming a pharmacy desert. Sandra Black has used this Walgreens for ten years and said it was a convenient location for her.
“ If I had to go to the doctor and anything, we would come here. It's closer,” Black said. “And, we're surprised because there's nothing over here anyway, so now there really isn't anything. It's a shame.”
Health access advocates say places like West Dayton are casualties of chains that do not prioritize pharmacy access.
Antonio Ciaccia runs 46brooklyn Research, an Ohio nonprofit focused on drug pricing data. He said pharmacy chains like Walgreens make decisions to close lower-profit stores to maximize profits.
“If they're not making the prescriptions, and the economic climate is not great on the front end of the pharmacy, chains like Walgreens will have to start prioritizing where they maintain locations and where they don't,” Ciaccia said.
Pharmacy economics
Another pharmacy in the area is locally owned Ziks Pharmacy, with locations on West Third street and Salem Avenue. The owner, Nnodum Iheme, opened the pharmacy in 2009 after Rite Aid closed their Hoover Avenue location the year before.
While Ziks has filled the gap in West Dayton, Iheme said the closure of the Westwood Walgreens might indicate the problem of poor reimbursement that both big chains and independent pharmacies like his face.
“If they (Walgreens) are buying medication, it may be $1,000, and insurance reimburses them only $700, how can they stay in business?” Iheme said. “Our overhead is a little smaller, but we go through the same difficulties that they go through with reimbursements.”
The different businesses in the pharmaceutical industry — from the pharmacies, to insurance companies, to drug makers — have been grappling with who is to blame as prescription drug prices have soared, insurance payments have tightened, and pharmacies have struggled to stay in business.
Pharmacy benefit managers, which work as third parties managing prescription benefits for insurance companies, are often blamed by drug stores as part of the problem.
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate prices and payments between drug manufacturers, pharmacies, and insurance companies. They also create prescription drug lists, called formularies, which decide which drugs are covered by insurance. PBMs say they advocate for lower costs to save money for patients and insurance companies.
However, pharmacies say that doing business with PBMs can squeeze their profit margins.
“I want to be able to pay my people good money,” Iheme said. “I really want them to feel good about the job they do for the community and compensate them properly, but sometimes because of the limitation of the reimbursement and the cost of medication that we buy, it becomes an obstacle.”
In 2021, the Ohio Medicaid program — which spends over $3 billion a year on prescriptions — switched over to a new state-controlled PBM. State Attorney General Dave Yost alleged one of the pharmacy benefit managers overbilled the Ohio Department of Medicaid for services it provided, and the PBM agreed to settle with the state.
"It's very hard to run a pharmacy when you're overly reliant on PBMs," Ciaccia said. "PBMs and health insurance companies don't work to compensate pharmacies in a way that's commensurate with their value to the patient.”
The loss of the Walgreens pharmacy will leave a void, as patients in West Dayton figure out where to get their medication after the closure.
Walgreens said all staff have been offered jobs at other nearby Walgreens, and it will continue to operate locations in Dayton.
