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Local pharmacies get a dose of pain from chains
Small drugstores cant compete with networks' Medicare plans
0210medicare1
Riverside Pharmacy’s Scott Barton helps customer Laura Campbell with her prescription Thursday afternoon. Some independent pharmacies are suffering because big national pharmacies are making deals with insurance companies that create preferred pharmacy networks that so far cut the independent shops out of the picture.
Gainesville resident Linda Cash says she has been a customer of Riverside Pharmacy on Green Street for 14 years. But she’s afraid she will have to change pharmacies after her Medicare insurance prescription plan moved to having a network of preferred pharmacies that doesn’t include Riverside. Gainesville has about 10 to 15 locally owned pharmacies, Riverside pharmacist Scott Barton said.