pharmacies

The U.S. Postal Service plans to consolidate some services to regional hubs in Kansas City and St. Louis. Critics say the move will hurt rural customers, especially people who rely on the mail for their medication delivery.

Pharmacy closures nationwide are leaving some communities at risk, including in the Kansas City area. Experts say pharmacy benefit managers are what's driving drugstores out of business.

Pharmacists often say their businesses can’t survive under the reimbursement rates set by pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen. Sometimes, they pay more for drugs than they’re allowed to charge customers.

Kansas City pharmacists walked off the job last September to protest working conditions and brought widespread attention to the troubled retail pharmacy business. The industry is battling economic pressures, changed buying habits and labor shortages.

Yes, pharmacies fill prescriptions, administer tests and give vaccines. But they also fill a vital role in the health care ecosystem, offering medical advice and care when doctors aren’t available. When pharmacies shut down, that care disappears.

Kansas City pharmacists walked off the job last September to protest working conditions and brought widespread attention to the troubled retail pharmacy business. The industry is battling economic pressures, changed buying habits and labor shortages.

A Kansas family remembers Valentine’s Day as the beginning of panic attacks, life-altering trauma and waking to nightmares of gunfire. Thrown into the spotlight by the mass shooting, they wonder how they will recover. Plus: Four Kansas pharmacy owners are taking on the prescription drug industry.

Since recreational weed was legalized in Missouri, thousands of residents say they get a greater high than from the pot they used to buy. Plus: Patients in Kansas are losing access to basic health care as independently owned pharmacies close.

As pharmacies close nationwide, some patients lose access to basic pharmaceutical care. These closures are hitting independently owned pharmacies in places like rural Kansas especially hard.

The University of Kansas surveyed more than 200 workers in chain retail settings about their job satisfaction. “They've been treated, in a lot of cases, like a commodity instead of a health care worker,” one industry professional said.

With demand high for new COVID vaccines, some CVS pharmacies around the Kansas City area weren't able to give out shots because of a pharmacist walkout. Organizers are demanding better working conditions and said that extremely limited staffing puts CVS pharmacists and patients at risk.

After a large walkout forced at least a dozen stores to shut down in the Kansas City area, CVS promises change. But critics say the crisis in staffing and unfair pay extends beyond that market.