Your pharmacy is closing: keeping your prescriptions on track

What happens when a pharmacy closes

When a pharmacy closes, your prescriptions are often moved to another pharmacy, but the rules differ from state to state. In Connecticut, for example, the state's consumer protection office explains that if you don't transfer your prescriptions yourself, your prescriptions and records are transferred automatically to another pharmacy. It suggests you start moving them right away, and ask the closing pharmacy where they're going.

If you leave it to the closing pharmacy, you don't choose where they go, and it may not be the pharmacy that suits you best. Closings of this kind have been common. Rite Aid, for example, closed all its remaining stores in 2025. Afterwards CVS said it had moved prescription files from 626 Rite Aid pharmacies in 15 states to nearby CVS stores.

The good news: you can choose where your prescriptions go.

How to tell if this affects you

Look for a sign at the counter, a note in your prescription bag, a letter, or a text from the pharmacy. If a message about your pharmacy closing arrives by text or email, check it in person or by calling the pharmacy's number from your prescription label.

What to do, step by step

1. Ask two questions at the counter: "When is your last day?" and "Where are my prescriptions being sent?"
2. Ask for a printout of your prescription history. Connecticut's guidance recommends it. It lists every medicine you take, the dose, and your doctors. Keep it with your important papers.
3. Choose your new pharmacy. Think about distance, opening hours, a drive-through, home delivery, and whether the pharmacist has time to talk. Check that it's in your drug plan's network: call your plan using the number on your insurance card, or look at the plan's own website.
4. Move your prescriptions. The simplest way is to ask the new pharmacy to transfer them; bring your printout and your pill bottles. Or ask your doctor's office to send new prescriptions to the new pharmacy. Ask the new pharmacist whether any of your medicines need a fresh prescription from your doctor.
5. Mind your refill dates. Don't let a medicine run out during the move. If one is nearly finished, ask about refilling it before the old pharmacy closes.
6. Tell your doctors the name and address of your new pharmacy, so new prescriptions go to the right place.
7. Update the small things: automatic refills, text reminders, home delivery, and the pharmacy listed on any medicine apps you use.

Mail-order and online pharmacies

Your drug plan may offer a mail-order pharmacy, which can work well for medicines you take every day. Ask your plan.

Be careful with pharmacies you find through search results or ads. The FDA's BeSafeRx guide says a safe online pharmacy is licensed by your state board of pharmacy, has a licensed pharmacist to answer your questions, and gives a physical address and telephone number in the United States. It lists warning signs too: no state license, no pharmacist, and prices that seem too good to be true.

What it costs

Prices can differ between pharmacies, even with the same insurance. Before you settle on a new pharmacy, ask it what your regular medicines will cost you there. If you pay a lot for one medicine, ask your plan whether another network pharmacy, or its mail-order service, charges less.

Scams that ride along with this change

• Calls from "your pharmacy's new owner" asking for card details to "keep your prescriptions active." Hang up, then call the pharmacy you know, using the number on your prescription label.
• Websites selling prescription medicine without a prescription or at very low prices. These are the warning signs the FDA lists.
• Texts with links about "transferring your prescriptions." Do the transfer in person or by phone with a pharmacy you chose.