Rite Aid files for bankruptcy as other pharmacy chains struggle with labor shortages
What the (financial) doctor ordered… Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy on Sunday after years of sales declines, debt issues, and costly opioid-related legal battles. The drugstore chain, which had closed 200+ stores in the past two years, is expected to shutter even more of them, threatening the job security of its 47K employees.
Not-so-thrifty balance sheet: Rite Aid rang up $2B+ in losses over the past five years, and its 2.1K store count is about half of what it was a decade ago. As of this summer, the chain had $3.3B in debt.
Prescription probs: Rite Aid said it would work to transfer prescriptions from locations that are closing to other pharmacies to avoid delays in customers getting their meds.
Headed to court: The Justice Department sued Rite Aid in March, alleging that it ignored red flags when filling “at least hundreds of thousands” of opioid prescriptions between 2014 and 2019. The DOJ also said Rite Aid dismissed concerns from employees. Similar suits have dinged Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart to the tune of $13B.
In need of a boost(er)… Rite Aid isn’t the only pharmacy struggling: a nationwide pharmacist shortage has upended the industry, leading CVS and Walmart to cut pharmacy hours. Walgreens employees who said they were overworked staged a walkout last week, and the protests could expand to other chains. Staff shortages were also behind a recent 75K-worker strike against the Kaiser Permanente health system.
Burnout has a high cost… and the receipt’s getting longer. 74% of US pharmacists said they didn’t have time to safely perform their job duties. And workloads may be about to increase even more with a busy cold, flu, and Covid-booster season expected. Understaffing can lead to dangerous situations, like incorrectly filled prescriptions, which can be far pricier than the cost of labor.