How much saturated is the Pharmacy Market?

 To break it down Dr. Brown suggests there will be a 20% unemployment rate for new pharmacy graduates by the year 2018. He utilizes trends in pharmacy employment and education to make projections. There has been a huge growth in pharmacy graduates in the past 15 years. In 2001, new pharmacy graduates totaled 7000 compared to 15,000 annually by 2018. There has been class size growth and many new pharmacy schools opening around the nation causing this dramatic output of new pharmacy graduates. Dr. Brown suggests the pharmacist job market can support about 10-12,000 new graduates a year. That leaves you about 3,000 new graduates without jobs, hence the 20% unemployment rate.

• New Pharmacy Schools
• Increase Class Size Growth
• Pharmacist are working longer into typical retirement years
• The Great Recession
• Automation and higher work production

Arguments Against Pharmacist Saturation: The data demonstrates dramatic increase in pharmacy graduates in the past decade. The obvious question is whether there will be enough jobs to support the current supply of pharmacists coming out of pharmacy school. One argument supporting the pharmacist job market is the Affordable Care Act and Provider Status. This has added millions of uninsured patients to the healthcare system. This puts stress on the overall healthcare system therefore limiting access to healthcare for some patients. Pharmacists can step in to fill the void. It has already happened in the state of Washington. 

This expansion of pharmacist billing for healthcare services should spur job growth in the near future. This is groundbreaking news that should have all states looking ahead to join. There are other states with provider status for pharmacists, however, they do not include language in the legislation directly addressing reimbursement.

To Summarize: Pharmacy is an ever evolving career. Pharmacists will continue to expand healthcare services in the coming years. Provider status has always been the achilles heel for pharmacist being able to bill for their services to insurance companies. Many states across the nation are beginning to obtain Provider Status. In addition, Washington State is the first to include language in the legislation requiring health insurance carriers to recognize pharmacists in the same way as other providers such as physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.