04/08/2025
WHAT-IF:
My wife and I often say we are, quite possibly, living the best years of our life. Watching our little family grow up, having our boys running through the pharmacy, living in this quiet small town, and enjoying the 'simple life'. We often don't think about 'what if' anymore. Only lately have I started to wonder, what if our little pharmacy closed? What if we weren't able to raise our family in this small town? I hate thinking about it, but it's been weighing heavily on my mind.
While Eagle Grove Pharmacy has been around for 40 years, I've only been a part of that history for the past 16 years. What started out as an after-school job for a teenager has become my life's passion. I had no idea back then I would end up owning the place, but I'm so glad this was God's plan for my life. I have the very best staff and seeing the difference we get to make in people's lives each day pushes our whole team forward.
However, over the years the pharmacy industry has become more difficult to navigate as insurance reimbursements are at an all time low, drug costs are skyrocketing, and we are stuck in the middle trying to provide the best care to our patients. Last year was the first year we had to make hard decisions on what medications to carry (some we just lost too much money to certain insurances), cutting staffing levels, cutting store hours, and cutting any expenses we possibly could. PBM's (pharmacy benefit managers, middlemen between insurance plans and pharmacies) are trying to maximize profits and monopolize the industry by steering patients to their mail-order facilities and putting brick and mortar stores out of business. Over 1/3 of the prescriptions we filled last year were for a loss!
The Iowa Legislature has a chance to make a difference this year and pass meaningful legislation, something that wasn't successful last year. I'm almost to the point of begging our patients, friends, and family members to reach out to your local state senators and representatives and voice your support for PBM reform. PBM's are lobbying hard to block this from passing and spreading misleading information about increasing healthcare costs and premiums. It's proven in other states that have passed legislation to do the exact opposite. The winners are pharmacies, patients, and communities.
The 'what if I'm gone' question scares me. I don't want to leave this community who I have the honor to care for. This community who supports my family and my staff. My patients who trust my recommendations and clinical judgment., who I meet at the store at 10pm at night because they need medications for their sick baby or medications for nausea following a course of chemo. I wonder, who will take care of those hospice patients who I deliver medications to on a Sunday afternoon so their family doesn't have to leave their side? What will local, rural healthcare look like? And who will give back to the community the same way we do?
So, If you would, please contact your local state representatives or visit this website... https://patientsfirst.org/iowa to learn more and reach them. Please voice your support for local healthcare so we can stop thinking about all these scary 'what ifs'.... I'll be at the state capital tomorrow, but I need your help!
-Andrew Wagner
TLDR
-We really love being your pharmacy
-I really don't want to move
-Insurance companies are paying us less than the cost to buy drugs
-We won't last another 5 years like this
-Iowa Legislature has a chance to pass meaningful PBM reform
-Please contact your state legislators and save access to local healthcare!
