Cvs Warns It Could Close All 134 Locations In A Single State If New Bill Goes Ahead

CVS Health has warned it could adjacent each of its 134 pharmacies successful Tennessee if a caller measure is fixed nan greenish ray by nan state’s lawmakers.

If passed, Senate Bill 2040 would prohibit nan co-ownership of pharmacies and drugstore use managers. The connection was sponsored by Bobby Harshbarger, a personnel of nan Tennessee Senate.

PBMs enactment arsenic a middleman betwixt unit pharmacies, health security companies and supplier manufacturers. They are utilized by employers and wellness insurers to discuss supplier prices.

“For excessively long, drugstore use managers person been allowed to ain aliases power pharmacies while besides deciding which pharmacies patients tin choose,” Harshbarger wrote successful a statement on Facebook.

“That conflict of liking leads to diligent steering, reduced choice, and section pharmacies being squeezed out.”

If nan Freedom, Access and Integrity successful Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act passes, PBMs would beryllium prohibited from holding drugstore licenses from January 1, 2027.

However, Amy Thibault, a spokesperson for CVS Health, said that nan measure could lead to statewide closures of nan brand’s pharmacies.

“The only point this authorities does is unit nan closure of 134 CVS pharmacies,” she told USA Today. “It’s bad for Tennessee, for nan much than 1.5 cardinal patients we service and for nan much than 2,000 colleagues who will suffer bully paying jobs.”

Thibault besides warned that CVS Health could person to unopen down 25 in-store MinuteClinic locations, but added that nan institution is committed to moving pinch policymakers.

On Tuesday, CVS Health confirmed to Newsweek that it had already closed much than 1,100 of its drugstore stores since 2022.

The spokesperson stressed that nan closures were not successful consequence to manufacture conditions and were portion of a planned effort to restructure its web of branches.

“We’re assured that our existent footprint features nan correct kinds of stores successful nan correct locations for consumers today,” a spokesperson for nan marque said.

Harshbarger said SB 2040 has already passed nan Tennessee Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

Last year, a national judge halted proceedings successful a situation complete a akin measure successful Arkansas.

Arkansas Act 624 of 2025 would person banned PBMs from holding permits to run supplier stores successful nan state. However, U.S. District Judge Brian Miller ruled that nan measure “likely violates” nan U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause.

Harshbarger’s mother, Tennessee Representative Diana Harshbarger, has besides been captious of PMBs.

In December 2025, she announced successful a press statement that she was introducing nan Pharmacist Fight Back Act to prohibit PBMs “from engaging successful predatory behaviors.”

The Independent has contacted CVS Health for comment.