Pharmacists across the country have probably seen that the national pharmacy chains will pay more than $13 billion to settle claims related to the opioid crisis.1 They might have read that the details of these settlements vary by state and are hundreds of pages long. But what they may not have heard about are the 20 pages hidden within the settlement agreements that describe the mandatory operational changes that the pharmacy chains will implement for the next 10 years.
Given the number of pharmacies that will be implementing these changes, they could easily become part of the industry standard practices going forward, moving the needle on what customers, pharmacy boards, or even the Drug Enforcement Administration may come to expect from all pharmacies. We summarize below the key operational changes agreed to by the national pharmacy chains.