“A pharmacy desert is a neighborhood where the majority of the population lives more than a mile or a half a mile–depending on their income and vehicle ownership–from their nearest pharmacy in urban areas,” said University of Southern California associate professor Dima Qato.
Qato studies which communities have close access to pharmacies. Prior to the pandemic, she found twice as many pharmacies closed in communities of color in urban areas. Places, she says, where people are more likely to use public insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid, which she says pay pharmacies less than what many private insurance companies do.
“So, if you’re a pharmacy and you’re thinking about where to open, that’s not really a market; that’s not the best market from a business standpoint,” said Qato.
Qato says more needs to be done to increase reimbursement rates for public insurance so communities, like where Rebecca Mawuenyega’s pharmacy is located, aren’t left behind.