Why were pharmacies viable before? Presumably they didn't lose money for their whole history.
AI probably will save the pharmacies some money, but IMO this will probably cause reimbursement rates to decline further, leaving the pharmacies in the same position as before.
The funny part is probably a majority of pharmacies are owned by CVS or Walgreens each of which are insurance companies in their own right, and often people with company health insurance will ONLY allow reimbursements through their company pharmacy.
Insurance companies and PBMs would probably say the same they have competitors (ie:replaceable) and can’t just pay more for this or that, or reject any cost saving measure available.
Of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating during 2010–20, 29.4 percent had closed by 2021.
CVS And Walgreens both own and operate PBMs. And UHG (Optum), 19 Blue Cross plans collectively own Prime Therapeutics, Kaiser owns one, the DVA has one, Express Scripts is owned by Cigna. There’s likely more I am unfamiliar with too.