Quincy Rite Aid Pharmacy Faces Uncertain Future

QUINCY — National news sources have reported that the Rite Aid Corporation, which operates the Rite Aid pharmacy in the Quincy shopping center, intends to close all of its retail stores as a result of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Although the Quincy location is not on a list of 21 California stores set to close that was released on May 9, there is growing concern about the pharmacy’s future, including in remarks by District 4 Supervisor Mimi Hall at the May 13 meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Closure of the Quincy Rite Aid would reflect a national trend of community pharmacy closures, according to the KFF health research organization. However, the manager of the Quincy store, Panny Sloat, clarified by telephone that although Rite Aid is in the bankruptcy process, he did not have “any follow-up” about plans for the Quincy location.

Plumas County has locally owned full-service pharmacies in Quincy, Portola, and Chester. None of them is currently open evenings or weekends, however. The owner of the independent Quincy Pharmacy, Karen Schad, says that she and her staff have been meeting regularly to plan how to meet the community’s needs in the event Rite Aid closes. She identified the lack of evening and weekend hours as a concern for clients seeking to fill prescriptions, as well as for patients who need medications in order to be discharged from local hospitals. She said Quincy Pharmacy is staffing up and considering adding Saturday hours to handle increased demand. She also noted that the area’s locally-owned pharmacies generally accept all major insurance plans, including Medi-Cal and Medicare Part B. About the potential increase in demand for service, Ms. Schad said, “We take really good care of people, so we can take care of more people.”

Lindsey Compton, CEO for Portola Village Pharmacy, said by email that she was not ready to comment on the situation in light of the uncertainties, but that, if Rite Aid closes, area pharmacies could work together “to determine how we can best meet the needs of our patients in a financially feasible way.”

Ms. Schad of Quincy Pharmacy explained the mechanics of transferring prescriptions to a different pharmacy if patients want to do so: the patients call the new pharmacy they want to transfer to and list the prescriptions they want to transfer; the new pharmacy then handles the rest of the process of contacting the previous pharmacy, and if necessary the patient’s doctor. Quincy Pharmacy also has an online transfer form that can be used in place of a phone call. A prescription can usually be transferred in one day unless there is a need to contact the doctor, Ms. Schad said.