PRESCRIPTION PROBLEMS: Michigan might become a 'pharmacy desert' amid closures

Depending on where you live, your access to medication could look very different in the coming months. At least two major pharmacies are reportedly shutting down several locations.

As FOX 17 learned, it's going to happen fast.

“I mean, it's going to create a pharmacy desert," said John Cakmakci.

Rite Aid is "essentially going out of business," as he put it. The company did file for bankruptcy in October 2023.

"I give Rite Aid a lot of credit for hanging in there, trying to make it work," he said. "The rooster came home to roost, and we're seeing that.”

Cakmakci is the President of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 951 , a union that, at one point, represented more than 1,000 Rite Aid employees at 89 different locations in south and west Michigan.

He said that number has already been reduced to 240 employees at just 47 locations.

READ MORE: Spring Lake Rite Aid among others closing in Michigan

“Next week, it'll be less," he warned. "Two weeks from then, it'll be less still.”

He suspects, by mid-to-late September, every location in their jurisdiction will cease to exist.

“Some of (the pharmacists) are going to say, 'Wow, we'll be able to say goodbye to these people.' My point is, say goodbye to them now because this is going to happen quick," Cakmakci said.

He pointed to the opioid settlement as one major catalyst for the company's decline. Rite Aid agreed $30 million in 2022.

They're not the only ones.

Walgreens will pay more than $5.5 billion over the next 15 years. On Thursday, the company announced the shut down of 25% of its 8600 nationwide stores. It's not clear how many are located in Michigan, if any at all.

RELATED: Walgreens taking hard look at underperforming stores

"They all got their hand caught in the cookie jar, and now, you know, now it's time to pay up," Cakmakci said.

Eric Roath, Director of Government Affairs for the Michigan Pharmacists Association , said reimbursements have also been on a downward trend for at least ten years. He put much of the blame on Pharmacy Benefit Managers, who act as the middleman between the patient and pharmacy.

“They’re the ones that, we believe, are profiteering off of the rising drug costs and making it harder for patients to get their medications at an affordable rate, while also making it harder for pharmacies to stay in business and serve those same patients," Roath said.

Roath said legislation was passed in 2022 to combat that trend called the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Licensure and Regulation Act . It went into effect January 1, 2024, but Roath said the enforcement has been slow at best.

“This bill’s been in effect for six months, and you’re still seeing very little reinforcement," he said. "I met with a pharmacy this morning that showed me concrete examples of how the law is continuing to be violated.”

Roath and Cakmakci mentioned how this won't just hurt the pharmacists themselves, who will now be out of a job, but also the consumers.

Roath said 90% of Americans currently live within five miles of a pharmacy.

Cakmakci knows that won't be the case very soon.

"If you live in southwest Michigan, sometimes you get that snow belt, and you may have to travel 20 miles in a foot-and-a-half of snow to get to a pharmacy to help get some medicine for your child or your loved ones to get better," he said.

Cakmakci said the Rite Aid employees at impacted locations have a protected pension and were offered severance packages, but now he has to try and help them look for another job.

FOX 17 has reached out to Rite Aid to learn more but has yet to hear back.

Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube