By 2030, one in 5 Americans will be 65-plus. According to AARP, 87% of them want to age at home—not in assisted living communities.
Yet as more Americans choose to age in place, their needs only grow: complex medication regimens, decreased mobility, and in many cases, increased reliance on caregivers.
Meanwhile, AARP reports a nationwide shortage of healthcare providers to care for aging adults, whether paid privately or supported by long-term care insurance, nonprofits, or government programs.
LTC at Home is one solution filling the gap.
This growing model of care positions pharmacists to lead the way in supporting homebound older adults, whether it be in managing medication or providing clinical care.
Groups like the Alliance for LTC Pharmacy at Home, launched in February 2025, are helping pharmacies tap into this opportunity.
At the same time, pharmacists like Rannon Ching, Pharmacist In Charge at Tarrytown Pharmacy and Connect 2025 speaker, are already showing how it can be done—with or without prior LTC experience.
Because when it comes to providing care for aging adults, Rannon says, “The pharmacy should be where it starts.”
LTC at Home is a model where pharmacies provide long-term care services (from packaging to delivery to documentation) to patients living in their own homes rather than in assisted living communities.
And with the home health market projected to grow at a 7.5% annual rate between 2023 and 2030, it’s among the most promising areas of care for pharmacies.
LTC at Home ensures patients get comparable care and opens opportunities for pharmacies to get reimbursed for their services.
But both patients and pharmacies must meet certain requirements to participate.
Not every patient qualifies for LTC at Home. Eligible patients must:
Similarly, pharmacies interested in providing LTC at Home services must meet their own set of requirements. These include the ability to:
Getting started with LTC at Home is a time-intensive effort: think contracts, coordination, and a whole new arm of your workflow. But for Rannon, who’s been going down the LTC rabbit hole for the past decade, the efforts are well worth it.
First, he says, consider the obvious financial benefits.
In a world of shrinking margins, Rannon calls LTC at Home “the last frontier of dispensing that can still be profitable.”
As many pharmacists very well know, retail contracts often offer $0 dispensing fees and unfavorable AWP-% reimbursements.
By contrast, LTC at Home is treated as a service, with contracts that reflect that. These agreements reimburse for the full scope of care: packaging, delivery, and dispensing.
In other words, they offer a more promising way to actually get paid for the care you already provide.
Similarly, LTC at Home also helps your pharmacy stand out.
Rannon says, “It's a crowded market. There are pharmacies all over. You have competitors from chains, grocery chains, and other independents. Providing a service that sets you apart is going to be crucial as you move forward.”
And with massive projected growth in the LTC at Home space, positioning yourself now puts you ahead of the curve.
“The U.S.—CMS, the payers—they’re scared,” he adds. “They have no answers. There are all these aging patients, and they don’t know what to do. There aren’t enough geriatricians, techs, or nurse aides.”
Filling in that gap, then, is more important than ever.
But for Rannon, the gap is best filled when you care about the people that you’re serving.
Rannon’s own Tarrytown Pharmacy—which has been serving the Austin, TX community since 1941—has been with families for generations.
“We’ve spent years with patients, their kids, and their grandkids. And if they do go to an [assisted living] community, a lot of times [their pharmacy care] gets outsourced to a national company.”
And with that handoff, the community connection that defines independent pharmacy is lost.
That’s why, for Rannon, LTC at Home isn’t just a care model—it’s a way to ensure continuity, keeping patients connected to the pharmacy that understands their history and can anticipate their needs.
LTC at Home offers many benefits, but Rannon says that you’ll have your work cut out for you if you decide to give it a try.
Here are a few key pieces of advice to help you along the way:
LTC at Home is one of the fastest-growing opportunities in pharmacy. It opens the door to better care, stronger margins, and long-term sustainability.
For pharmacies like Rannon’s, it’s been a promising path forward.
If you’re already offering services like delivery or med sync—which go hand-in-hand with LTC at Home—it may be a simple extension of care, provided you get the proper contracts and don’t mind a bit of administrative overhead.
And if you’re a retail or combo shop, Rannon says, it doesn’t require a complete transformation—just implementing a few things well.
Start by identifying eligible patients, requesting the right contracts, and configuring your software to support LTC workflows.
The rest will follow.
This blog is adapted from Rannon Ching’s 2025 live Connect session, LTC at Home. Want more expert insights on LTC at Home and other emerging pharmacy services? Register now for Connect 2026.
