A Dubuque-based retail and pharmaceutical business is set to close one of its Dubuque stores by the end of the year.
Hartig Drug will close its pharmacy at 2225 Central Ave. effective Dec. 13, per a company statement issued Friday. The retail store likely will be open longer, however, to accommodate the sale of outstanding inventory.
“This wasn’t the outcome we hoped for, and it’s not a decision we made lightly,” said Hartig CEO and owner Charlie Hartig. “We’ll try to push through most of everything and have some sales there, but we’re planning to wind things down by the end of the year.”
Hartig tied the closure to declining insurance reimbursements from large pharmacy benefit managers — namely CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx — who handle a combined 80% of all prescription-drug transactions on behalf of insured Americans.
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, decide which drugs are covered, create pharmacy networks and decide how much to reimburse pharmacies for drugs they dispense. Because of their market share, nearly all U.S. pharmacies contract with one or more of the three largest entities.
Reimbursement rates have been declining for years, Hartig said, disproportionately impacting small, independent pharmacies by decreasing profits and/or refusing to cover specialty medications.
That loss combined with workforce shortages and rising operating costs led to the eventual decision to close the Central Avenue location, which Hartig said has not been profitable in “quite some time.”
“If we weren’t being squeezed on the reimbursement side, the other two would have been nonissues, or at least something we could handle,” Hartig said. “… But unfortunately, that’s not something we can do now.”
North End Neighborhood Association President Chuck Harris said the closure will be a “significant loss” for the area both in terms of the pharmaceutical services and the convenience of the retail operation.
There still is a Walgreens on 20th Street, he noted, although it is slightly farther south than the Hartig Drug location.
“I used that (Hartig) location as my pharmacy for years,” Harris said. “… But it also was great from just the convenience standpoint to be able to run in and grab a card for a birthday party or a snack.”
Hartig Drug has run a pharmacy on Central Avenue since 1924. Hartig said there are no set plans for the current 11,000-square-foot structure at this time, but that the company is identifying avenues that would best serve the community.
The three other Hartig Drug stores in Dubuque remain profitable and are not affected by the Central Avenue closure, he added.
Patient records and prescription services will be accessible at any of those other locations, and physical records will be transferred to the Hartig Drug in Asbury Square. All staff from the Central Avenue store were offered positions at other stores.