Grand Marais Pharmacy will not close August 31 as expected, said Bob Sample.
“We are going to stay open through Tuesday, September 8. Walgreens said they couldn’t accept our transfer of patient files until then.”
Sample had originally planned to close on August 31. He called on Monday, August 17 to notify the paper of the change in schedule.
With the closure of Grand Marais Pharmacy, Cook County will be without a walk-in place to pick up prescriptions until Sawtooth Mountain Clinic opens its new pharmacy in January 2021.
As recently as 2018, Cook County had two independent pharmacies, the Arrowhead Pharmacy and Grand Marais Pharmacy. Lower payments for prescriptions and long waits to get reimbursed for prescriptions have hurt independent pharmacies harder than chains like Walgreens or Walmart and Target, who have also entered into the business.
Sadly, rural and small-town independent pharmacies have been shuttering their doors at an alarming rate. According to the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis, about 16 percent of the nation’s small town pharmacies have closed since 2003, leaving fewer than 6,400 remaining.
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