The pharmacy opened in May 2017 after Carson spent nine years at Walgreens in the city.
“I always wanted to do an independent pharmacy and be able to just serve directly to the community and run things the way I wanted to,” Carson said. “It’s been great. And it’s sad for real. I think it’s just surreal right now for me, but all the customers — everyone’s coming in and telling us how much they’re going to miss us."
Carson said 2024 was the hardest year for the pharmacy, a year she said “was meant to break any independent pharmacy.”
She pointed to failed efforts to regulate Pharmacy Benefit Managers as the reason for the closure. She said low insurance reimbursements and losses on at least 30% of daily prescriptions have made the business unsustainable.
PBMs are middlemen that work with health insurers, large employers and other payers to manage prescription drug benefits. Proposed regulations on that role failed in last year’s Ohio General Assembly and new guidelines were recently proposed in the state budget bill.
“They’re reimbursing the chain pharmacies more so than they are the independent pharmacies, forcing people to go to mail orders,” Carson said. “We take losses on brand-name medications, so when we can’t fill those, it makes it inconvenient for our patients.”
“I’ve done everything; I’ve taken out my retirement twice to keep this place going,” Carson said. “It was all worth it for me. I mean I wanted to serve the community and that’s how I was able to do that for this long.”
That became unsustainable, and Carson said she has her kids, ages 10, 8 and 7, to look after. She said her children are “involved in every sport” and she is excited to spend the summer with her family. Beyond that, she’s playing things by ear, but will stay in the pharmacy business.
Carson’s has five employees and employs several students on a regular basis, particularly from Cedarville University and Ohio Northern University.
One staff member has worked at the pharmacy since the start, and the rest have been there five or more years, Carson said. She said she is thankful for their hard work and dedication and is making sure “everyone’s OK moving forward” in the best position for themselves and their families.
Carson expressed her gratitude to the pharmacy customers, too.
“Our customers are more than customers; they were family. Everyone has been here since I was first pregnant with my children, so they followed my children, they followed me,” Carson said. “It’s become more than just a customer to us, so we appreciate everything; we appreciate the support just continuing to be there even through our hardest year.”
Harding Road Pharmacy, 400 W. Harding Road a few blocks north of Wittenberg University, will be the only independent pharmacy left in the city once Carson’s closes.
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