Stop & Shop to close 19 in-store pharmacies, including Cohasset, Norwell

QUINCY — The Quincy-based grocery chain Stop & Shop will close nearly two dozen of the pharmacies it runs stores in the next two months, including those in Norwell and Cohasset.

Stop & Shop Spokeswoman Caroline Medeiros said in an email that the company will close 19 of the pharmacies in its grocery stories by early November. The closures come because of "steadily declining prescription reimbursements by private and government third-party payors. That decline is impacting retail pharmacies across the country," she said.

The store will continue top operate 200 pharmacies across the Northeast.

Two of the 19 pharmacies that are closing are the Stop & Shop in Norwell and Cohasset, said United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 328 President Tim Melia.

Medeiros did not respond to questions about what will happen to the pharmacists in the locations that are closing, where the closures are and what happens to those who have standing prescriptions at the soon-to-be-closed pharmacies.

Melia said the only other pharmacy closing in his area, which spans from Rhode Island to the South Shore and down to the Cape and Islands, is in Seekonk. Melia's union represents pharmacy technicians.

All pharmacy technicians will be transferred to other pharmacies. Those who are part time and don't want to move stores can stay and work as clerks, Melia said.

A report by the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission in 2019 took aim at pharmacy benefit mangers by charging consumers more than it reimbursed pharmacies for prescription dugs and pocketing the difference. It also raised concerns among pharmacists about low reimbursement rates.

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One of the biggest pharmacy benefit managers is CVS Caremark. It uses its buying power to set the prices insurance will  reimburse for prescription drugs.

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Material from USA Today was used in this report. Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@patriotledger.com.