At St. Charles Health System and Mosaic Community Health, our mission is to improve the health of the communities we serve. We take pride in being a trusted partner in care for Central Oregonians. But we cannot do this work alone.

Community pharmacies are an essential part of the health care system. When they are healthy and accessible, patients can fill prescriptions on time, get expert medication advice, manage chronic conditions and stay on track with their care. When those pharmacies disappear, patients suffer — and so does the broader health system.

That is why the survival of pharmacies in Central Oregon matters deeply to us. In recent years, we’ve watched pharmacy closures accelerate across the region, creating access gaps that push patients toward more costly interventions, including emergency room visits that could have been avoided with consistent access to medication.

In recent weeks, the closure of the Rite Aid on the south end of Bend added another blow to local pharmacy access. It is only the latest in a long and troubling trend. CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid have been shuttering stores across the state and the country. Meanwhile, community pharmacies are struggling to stay afloat under the weight of one-sided business practices that make it nearly impossible to break even, let alone thrive.

The root of this crisis lies in the dominance of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBM). These are corporate middlemen who control how prescriptions are paid and which pharmacies patients can use. In order to serve patients with insurance coverage, pharmacies must sign contracts with PBMs and the insurance companies they work with. These contracts are often take-it-or-leave-it and require pharmacies to absorb losses on prescriptions, with little transparency or recourse.

We’ve seen firsthand how these PBM-driven dynamics are putting pharmacies out of business. With partnership from Central Oregon Health Council and Roundhouse Foundation, Mid Oregon Credit Union and The Bean Foundation, St. Charles is opening a full-service community pharmacy in Madras, where a previous closure left a major void. But even as we make this investment, we have no guarantee that the pharmacy will be financially sustainable in the long run. We’re calling it a “pilot” because, under current conditions, launching a new pharmacy is an act of public service, not a viable business.

That’s where House Bill 3212 comes in. This legislation would address the root causes of Oregon’s pharmacy crisis by curbing the worst PBM contracting abuses. It would give pharmacies a fairer shot at survival by bringing basic standards of accountability and transparency into the contracting process. This isn’t about special treatment, it’s about giving local providers the ability to plan, invest and serve their communities without being pushed into a corner.

HB 3212 would make a real difference not only for pharmacy owners, but for the entire health care ecosystem. It would help patients avoid care disruptions, improve medication adherence and reduce avoidable strain on hospitals and clinics. It would allow health systems to build stronger partnerships with local pharmacies and ensure patients have access to the right care, at the right time, in the right setting.

Pharmacies are not just retail outlets. They are health care access points especially in rural and underserved communities like so many in Central Oregon. We need them. And they need our support.

If Oregon is serious about protecting health care access for all its residents, it must act now. The pharmacy closures we are witnessing are not random, they are the predictable outcome of a system that no longer works. House Bill 3212 offers a path forward.

We urge lawmakers to pass HB 3212 this session. Central Oregon’s health depends on it.

Michael Powell, is chief pharmacy officer at St. Charles Health System. Kevin Russell is director of ambulatory pharmacy services at St. Charles Health System. Bernadette Thomas is interim pharmacy director and chief health officer at Mosaic Community Health.