Reliance on independently owned pharmacies in rural America.

The purpose of this policy brief is to provide researchers, policy makers, and stakeholders with the locations of independently owned pharmacies in rural America that are the sole sources of access to local pharmaceutical services. Organizations representing those pharmacies have argued that the advent of Medicare prescription drug plans threatens the financial viability of those pharmacies (Grisnik 2006). In addition, some pharmacists have expressed concerns about changes in Medicaid reimbursement for pharmaceuticals brought about by the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005. We focus on those communities with only one pharmacy, independently owned, to lay a foundation for analyzing vulnerability of pharmacy services in rural America.