Local Pharmacies Fight: Community Meeting Set
Martella's Pharmacy and Pharmacists United host a June 23 community meeting in Boswell on the financial pressures facing small-town drugstores.
The financial pressures facing small-town drugstores will be the topic of a community meeting scheduled for June 23 in Boswell.
Martella’s Pharmacy and Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based nonprofit advocacy group, are sponsoring the meeting, which will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Boswell Prescription Center, 210 Ohio Street in Boswell. Martella’s billed the event as an “important community conversation about protecting patient access and local pharmacies.”
Complimentary food and beverages will be served.
Johnstown-based Martella’s has been battling Express Scripts, a St. Louis, Missouri-based industry middleman serving health insurers, since the company ruled that Martella’s was no longer an in-network provider as of August 2025.
The ruling ended the deep prescription discounts consumers had enjoyed previously, driving business to other drugstores. Among the people affected are Highmark and UPMC Health Plan members, the region’s two biggest health insurers.
Martella’s closed its Penn-Laurel Pharmacy in Central City at the end of March as it continues to get its in-network provider status restored with Express Scripts.
Longtime pharmacist Jon Jacobs, owner of the former Yough Valley Pharmacy in the Confluence FoodMart, also complained about being squeezed out of business by pharmacy benefit managers. PBMs often pay drugstores for prescriptions at rates that are lower than the cost of the drugs, leaving store owners to absorb the losses.
Jacobs closed his drugstore in February, 2024, which was among 1,100 Pennsylvania drugstores that were shuttered between 2020 and 2025, according to Spotlight PA, a nonprofit news platform based in Harrisburg. Many storeowners cited rising pressures from PBMs for the decision to close.
Pharmacists United, founded by independent pharmacists, aims to expose PBMs anti-competitive practices through hidden fees and markups, according to its website.