It's Not Easy Being a Rural Pharmacy: Services, Payments, Closures, and Deserts
Date:
Duration: approximately
minutes
Pharmacies are subject to a range of financial pressures and many rural pharmacies have closed over the past 15 years. These closures can create critical gaps in health care services available in rural areas. In 2021, there were 138 counties with no retail pharmacy, including 101 noncore, 15 micropolitan, and 22 metropolitan counties. During this webinar, Fred Ullrich and Keith Mueller shared recent research from the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis and discussed key findings on the availability of pharmacy services, payment models, the impact of pharmacy closures, and the creation of new pharmacy deserts.
Presenters
Fred Ullrich
Fred Ullrich is a Program Director for research
activities in the Department of Health Management and
Policy at the University of Iowa. He has over 35 years
of experience as an analyst in clinical trials, health
services, and health policy research. He has been with
the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis since
1997.
Keith J. Mueller,
PhD
Keith J. Mueller, PhD, is a Gerhard Hartman Professor
in Health Management and Policy, University of Iowa. He
is also the Director of RUPRI and its Center for Rural
Health Policy Analysis, and Chair of the RUPRI Health
Panel. He has been a national leader in rural health
services research, policy development and
implementation since 1988. Dr. Mueller currently serves
on the Rural Health Advisory Committee in the
Department of Veterans Affairs. He has served as
President of the National Rural Health Association
(NRHA) and as a member of the National Advisory
Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. He has
also served on national advisory committees to the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He has
published more than 240 scholarly articles and policy
papers, and received awards recognizing his research
contributions from NRHA, RUPRI, and the University of
Nebraska. In 2016, he received the University of Iowa
Regents Award for Faculty Excellence. His PhD is in
Political Science from The University of Arizona, and
he completed a Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Fellowship
with The Johns Hopkins University.
Additional Resources of Interest
- Medicare Beneficiary Access to Prescription Drugs in Rural Areas
- Pharmacy Vaccination Service Availability in Nonmetropolitan Counties
- Rural and Urban Pharmacy Presence – Pharmacy Deserts
- Telepharmacy Rules and Statutes: A 3-Year Update for all 50 States
- Update on Rural Independently Owned Pharmacy Closures in the United States, 2003-2021