Rite Aid’s bankruptcy plan stirs worries of new ‘pharmacy deserts’

Rite Aid’s plan to close more stores as part of its bankruptcy process could hurt access to medicine and care, particularly in some majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and in rural areas, experts say. When drugstore chains shutter stores, they often target locations in lower-income, Black and Latino neighborhoods with people covered through government-funded insurance programs like Medicaid, said Dima Qato, a University of Southern California associate professor who studies pharmacy access. Rite Aid also has a lot of stores in smaller, rural markets that don’t get as much business as locations in big cities, noted Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager for Gabelli Funds who follows drugstores. The Philadelphia-based company said in a fact sheet laying out its plan that it “will make every effort to ensure our customers have access to health services, whether at another Rite Aid or another nearby pharmacy.” The company had started a pilot program that aimed to address rural pharmacy deserts by opening a couple smaller stores in rural Virginia.