Rite Aid’s bankruptcy plan stirs worries of new ‘pharmacy deserts’

By TOM MURPHY
AP Health Writer

Rite Aid’s plan to close more stores as part of its bankruptcy process raises concern about how that might hurt access to medicine and care. The drugstore chain said late Sunday that its voluntary Chapter 11 process will allow it to speed up its plan to close underperforming stores. The company runs more than 2,000 stores mostly on the East and West coasts. It said it doesn’t know yet which ones will close. One University of Southern California researcher says drugstores often target locations in lower-income, Black and Latinx neighborhoods with people covered through government-funded insurance programs like Medicaid.