WASHINGON — Mike Wysong will succeed Steve Anderson as president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores at the start of 2027, a year shaping up to be a turning point for the association and its new leader. The retail pharmacy industry’s existing infrastructure, which includes a store within five miles of some 90% of the U.S. population, leaves it well positioned to significantly expand its role in healthcare delivery. Wysong’s top priority is to accelerate the transformation, which is already well underway.
In addition to dispensing medications, counseling patients, and administering immunizations, community pharmacies are – where state practice regulations allow – testing and treating individuals for a range of common ailments, helping monitor chronic conditions, and prescribing medications for contraception, smoking cessation and other wellness needs. To speed up the ongoing transformation, Wysong will need to marshal NACDS members and other pharmacy advocates to help secure Congressional passage of the Main Street Pharmacy Access Act, which would designate pharmacists as healthcare providers under Medicare Part B. The legislation calls for a permanent, large-scale reimbursement framework that would enable Medicare beneficiaries to receive many clinical services at their neighborhood pharmacies and provide reimbursement.
It is hoped – as is often the case – that payers in the private sector would follow the government’s lead. Those developments would go a long way toward stabilizing pharmacy economics, shifting remuneration from products dispensed to services rendered.
At the same time, NACDS’ new CEO will have to tackle other tough issues. Although the association and its allies recently succeeded, after a years-long effort, in passing federal PBM reform, there is widespread agreement that the pro-pharmacy provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act are only a first step. The rule-making process to implement the measures will likely be arduous, and additional legislation will be needed to rein in PBM practices that make it increasingly difficult for pharmacy operators to turn a profit.
In addition, NACDS must cope with the dwindling number of pharmacies in the U.S., which has fallen by 8,000 over the last decade. Rite Aid's disappearance in 2025 was a major blow. And the association has yet to win back CVS Health after the two parties parted ways in 2022 over divergent views of PBMs and how to regulate them. NACDS also needs to bolster its appeal among non-pharmacy retailers and CPG companies, some of which have reduced their involvement as drug chains’ front-end business has struggled. NACDS, like all businesses, must also contend with pressing issues such as artificial intelligence, tariffs and climate change.
NACDS chairman Dave Warner, Anderson, and the board of directors are already hard at work laying the foundation for the association’s next phase. During NACDS Total Store Expo in August, Warner, CEO of KPH Healthcare Services, offered a first glimpse of the emerging strategic framework. The plan will address “evolving the role of pharmacy beyond dispensing toward care delivery, health and wellness initiatives, and sustainable economics,” he said. “Moving faster, investing differently, supporting members more directly, and building new capabilities for what comes next.”
Over its history, NACDS has shown it can change in meaningful ways to meet the moment. As Anderson recalled at TSE, the association has moved through several distinct phases during his two decades at the helm – including a period of discipline in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008; pharmacy’s heroic efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic; and the current phase of transformation and acceleration. NACDS’ proven resilience and adaptability, coupled with the enhanced strategic vision now taking shape, will equip Wysong to hit the ground running.
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