Jake Standefer became a pharmacist so he could care for patients.
He is an independent pharmacist because he believes being locally owned and operated is the best way to care for patients.
But Standefer, CEO of his family’s Access Family Pharmacy in Hixson since 2019, has a blunt message about the ability of local pharmacies in Chattanooga to continue providing the tailored service their customers love.
“We are hanging on as much as we can and hoping and praying that federal reforms get passed,” Standefer said in an interview. “If they don’t, you will see independent pharmacy go away, especially rural independent pharmacy.”
The reforms in question relate to pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen between insurance companies and drugstores that local pharmacists say engage in unfair practices that could put them out of business.