By Ford Turner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette(TNS)

Despite a new law that expands the state’s authority over organizations that manage pharmacy benefits, financially strapped pharmacies are closing at an alarming rate in some of Pennsylvania’s most needy and underserved areas, state lawmakers were told Wednesday.

“It is a crisis in Philadelphia. I am sure it is a crisis in Pittsburgh also,” Rob Frankil, executive director of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists, told senators in the Capitol.

Mr. Frankil’s sentiment was echoed at the informational meeting by a succession of presenters, and especially by the senators who are part of the “Senate Community Pharmacy Caucus.”

Democratic state Sen. Lisa Boscola of Northampton County said she believed 600 pharmacies have closed in Pen

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