NCPA, USC partner on pharmacy mapping tool
By HME News Staff
Updated 9:47 AM CDT, Wed October 26, 2022
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association and the University of Southern California are collaborating on a new interactive mapping tool that could promote health equity by identifying pharmacy shortage areas in the United States. The tool can also help policymakers see the consequences of pharmacy benefit manager practices that are believed to contribute to pharmacy access issues. The tool shows nearly one in four neighborhoods nationwide are pharmacy shortage areas. “Millions of Americans may live within what appears to be a modest distance to a pharmacy, but they don’t have a car or access to public transportation,” said B. Douglas Hoey, CEO of the NCPA. “That severely limits their access to pharmacies in their area.” The tool defines pharmacy shortage areas as neighborhoods in which the nearest pharmacy is more than one mile away for urban, two miles away for suburban or 10 miles away for rural neighborhoods. The NCPA says these defined areas are in line with published peer-reviewed research. The association and USC will introduce the tool in the coming weeks via a series of webinars.
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