The Boston City Council is asking state regulators to require pharmacies to give more notice when they close a store. The current minimum notice is two weeks. City lawmakers are asking for four months.
At its final meeting of the year, the council unanimously passed a petition to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy, labeling the current 14-day notice requirement for the board and recent patients as insufficient to make alternative arrangements for access to medication and care.
The petition comes after multiple pharmacies throughout Boston have abruptly closed, leaving many scrambling to make alternatives for accessing medication and care.
“How do you just close something and you know health equity is an issue in our community?” said Daneille Williams, executive director of the local advocacy group Prophetic Resistance Boston. The group organized multiple protests over closures in places like Roxbury, Dorchester and Roslindale.
“Folks were literally running around trying to figure out how they would be able to transfer life-saving medication as these pharmacies closed,” she said. Williams herself had to suddenly shift into search mode to figure out where she’d be getting her blood pressure medication when her pharmacy in Roxbury closed
“This is definitely something that’s needed for our community, specifically senior citizens,” she said.
The council’s proposed changes would also add local public health departments and mayors, or their equivalent city or town officials, to the list of parties who receive notice 120 days ahead of a closure date.
Williams said she’s hoping that even if pharmacies somehow fail to properly notify patients, a requirement to notify city officials would enable the appropriate health officials to proactively make new plans for access to prescriptions and services.
“No one should lose access to life-saving medication because they didn’t provide enough notice,” said outgoing Council President Ruthzee Louijuene in a statement.
“Residents deserve consistent access to their medications and essential healthcare services, yet sudden pharmacy closures, especially in neighborhoods with large, low-income Black and brown populations, disrupt that access and deepen existing health inequities,” said incoming Council President Gabriela Coletta Zapata. “Strengthening notice requirements will give communities time to prepare and work with providers on a coordinated transition plan, ensuring no neighborhood is left behind.”
Officials with the Board of Registration in Pharmacy did not immediately respond to GBH News’ request for comment on the petition.
The request comes as Boston and Massachusetts more broadly have seen a trend in pharmacy closures, leaving multiple communities with less convenient access to the care and medication the facilities provide.
Nationally, big chains like CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid have announced multiple closures this year, citing pressures from low reimbursement dragging down their abilities to cover staff and rent costs.
An October report from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission shows that, since 2019, the state has lost nearly 200 pharmacies — a 17% decline.
The closures, the group said, have left about 580,000 people — a little over 8% of Massachusetts’ population — in pharmacy deserts, defined according to factors like whether the community is rural (5 miles away from the nearest pharmacy), suburban (2 miles), or urban (1 mile) and what portion of its population lives under the federal poverty line.
Another 525,00 people live in areas at risk of becoming a pharmacy desert if their nearest facility closes. Nearly half the deserts are in urban areas like Boston.
In the report, MHPC executive director David Seltz pointed to potential ripple effects, saying that without access to pharmacies, “residents may turn to higher-cost care settings like emergency departments, which further burdens our health care workforce, drives up spending, and leads to worse health outcomes.”
Williams said given the health equity implications, a longer window of notification and a requirement to tell city officials shows courtesy for customers who rely on pharmacies for part of their well-being.
“We’re almost to the final step, which is the pharmacy board agreeing,” she said. “With the mayor’s signature on this petition and the unanimous vote from the City Council, I think we’ll be able to get the push to the end and get some type of respect for the community.”
Mayor Michelle Wu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the petition.
Boston’s petition to state pharmacy regulators would also extend the list of patients who must be notified of a closure by requiring pharmacies to count back 120 days rather than 90 days from the intended closure date and identify anyone who has had a prescription filled. Anyone who is on that list would need to be apprised of a pharmacy closure four months before it shuts its doors.
