This commentary is by Steven Simpson, the northern regional healthcare manager at Kinney Drugs. One of the things I’ve always valued most about community pharmacy is the chance to serve people close to home. In towns across Vermont, the local pharmacy is often one of the most familiar and trus ted places in the community, a place where people stop in for prescriptions, ask questions and see someone they know. Sometimes that means offering reassurance, helping someone think through what to do next, or simply being available when care feels harder to reach. And sometimes it means seeing a patient walk in on a weekend, hoping for help that simply isn’t easy to access at that moment. Until recently, the best I could do was offer guidance and ask them to follow up when their doctor’s office reopened. That is why the signing of H.588 matters so much. Gov. Phil Scott and the Legislature have taken a practical, patient-centered step forward, especially for rural communities where getting timely care can still be a challenge. H.588 allows pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to test, assess and treat certain common conditions — including strep throat and influenza — in a single visit. That matters because in many Vermont towns, the pharmacy is more than a place to pick up medication. It is part of the fabric of the community, close to home, open evenings and weekends, and staffed by people patients know and trust. Test-and-treat builds on that foundation. It gives patients another timely, convenient access point for straightforward conditions while reinforcing the broader care system and helping people get the right care at the right time. According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Americans visit their pharmacy nearly 10 times as often as they visit a primary care provider. Nearly 3 in 5 say they would seek non-emergency care at a pharmacy before any other healthcare setting, according to Wolters Kluwer’s 2023 Pharmacy Next Survey. We have seen this kind of evolution before. There was a time when receiving a vaccine in a community pharmacy felt unfamiliar to many people. Today, it is routine, a trusted, convenient part of how care is delivered. Test-and-treat has the potential to become the next step in that same progression, giving patients timely access to care in a setting that is already part of everyday life. As a Vermonter and a pharmacist for nearly 26 years with Kinney Drugs, I’ve seen firsthand how much it means when care is available close to home and on a schedule that fits real life. In a community pharmacy, you quickly come to understand that access is not an abstract policy issue. It is a parent trying to get care for a sick child before the weekend is over. It is an older Vermonter who cannot easily make a long drive. It is a neighbor trying to get through an illness without missing more time at work. For many Vermonters — especially in rural areas — a local pharmacy is not just convenient; it is one of the few healthcare access points woven into daily community life. According to reports from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the journal of the American Medical Association, nearly 1 in 4 Vermonters now live in a pharmacy desert, more than 10 miles from the nearest pharmacy, making the pharmacies that remain in these communities even more important. READ MORE That is why Vermont now has a real opportunity to make this policy change meaningful for the communities that need it most. The state has received $195 million in year one of a five-year Rural Health Transformation Program. Expanding pharmacy test-and-treat capacity is part of that transformation. On April 6, the Department of Vermont Health Access issued a pharmacy test-and-treat funding opportunity designed to support the equipment, training, technology integration and protocols needed to make these services work at scale. That investment is exactly what this moment requires. Expanding test-and-treat capacity will help patients get answers sooner, begin treatment faster and avoid unnecessary trips to higher-cost care settings. Just as importantly, it will strengthen pharmacies as community-based partners in a more coordinated rural healthcare system. The authority is now in place. The next step is to back it with the infrastructure and reimbursement needed to make access reliable and sustainable. For rural communities facing primary care shortages and limited office hours, this is more than a matter of convenience. It is a practical way to expand access to timely care in the places patients already know and trust. I am grateful to the governor and the Legislature for advancing H.588. For those of us who have spent our careers in community pharmacy, this law reflects something we have long understood: When care is easier to reach, communities are stronger. I believe strongly that test-and-treat can become one more meaningful way we care for our neighbors — in their own towns, at times that work for their lives and with the timely support they need. Now Vermont has the opportunity to match that policy with meaningful investment and build a stronger, more responsive healthcare system rooted in the communities it serves. Read the story on VTDigger here: How Vermont’s new pharmacy law could change rural healthcare. ...read more read less