Community Pharmacy: Beyond the Prescription
All Access with Andy Garcia collaborated with AlignRx to highlight how independent pharmacies continue to serve as the cornerstone of health care for patients in their local communities, despite facing financial pressures and operational challenges that threaten their survival.
Community pharmacies are playing an increasingly important role in health care, providing personalized care and services that go far beyond dispensing prescriptions.
This public television segment explores how community pharmacists are expanding their role through services, such as chronic disease management, immunizations, and medication adherence, while navigating an increasingly complex healthcare environment.
The segment also examines the challenges facing community pharmacies, including pharmacy access and choice, fair competition, and PBM transparency. AlignRx is advocating for reforms that support stronger, more sustainable community pharmacies—helping pharmacists stay focused on what matters most: their patients.
All Access with Andy Garcia is an award-winning short-form documentary series distributed to public television stations nationwide. The series features stories from across the globe, focusing on a wide range of topics that highlight the most recent developments in technology, medicine, and social issues—providing viewers an in-depth look at the innovations and individuals shaping the world today.
Fair Reimbursement
Community pharmacies face significant financial pressures, with many reimbursements falling at or below cost. Pharmacists are essential healthcare providers and should be fairly compensated for the services they provide. Fair reimbursement is critical to sustaining community pharmacies and ensuring continued access to quality care.
Patient Access
With many patients seeing their pharmacist more frequently than their physician in any given year, community pharmacies play a vital role in the delivery of health care. This is particularly true in rural and underserved communities, where pharmacists are often among the most accessible healthcare providers and points of care.
PBM Reform
Despite legislative efforts to address pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices, community pharmacies continue to face significant challenges. Greater transparency, accountability, and effective enforcement are needed to promote fair competition, strengthen the pharmacy marketplace, and help protect patient access to care.
“The relationship across the patient, the physician, and the pharmacist is like a three-legged stool. If you remove one of those legs, the patient—the one sitting on the stool—gets hurt. When we weaken the community pharmacy, we’re not just affecting a business, we’re affecting the patient who depends on that pharmacist for access, answers and care.”
— Melanie Maxwell, President, AlignRx
“For our pharmacists to practice at the top of their licenses, we need our partners to be able to help us around contract negotiation and reconciliation among other things … so we can be reimbursed for all of the services we provide, and to be the community hub for healthcare in our rural community.”
— Jacqueline Eide, PharmD
Owner & Pharmacist, Goldendale Pharmacy