Archive for month: July, 2026
Johnson County Post Article: ‘This is Life and Death’ — Pharmacy of Grace Opens in Shawnee
Shawnee, KS — The Johnson County Post attended our ribbon cutting last week and their article highlights the healthcare need Pharmacy of Grace is filling in Johnson County.
When Shawnee resident Kerri Neighbors lost her job and her insurance, she needed a medication and couldn’t afford it. So she walked away from the retail pharmacy empty-handed. She says she doesn’t leave empty-handed anymore now that she’s been coming to Pharmacy of Grace.
“They have been a godsend. They have been a blessing,” said Neighbors, “I would not be alive today if it wasn’t for them because I couldn’t afford my medicines.”
Reporter Andrew Gaug described the need in Johnson County and why this opening will help many more neighbors.
A Need Hidden in Plain Sight
Johnson County is often perceived as one of the most affluent counties in the Kansas City metro. But as co-founder John Yost told the Post, the numbers tell a different story.
“There’s more uninsured people in Johnson County than even Wyandotte County, where our first location is,” he said. “Right around here, within walking distance, there’s about 2,000 people that are uninsured. To give you an idea, last year in Kansas City we served less than 2,000 people total.”
A Focus on Patient Care
Pharmacist-in-Charge Brandon Powers, who like many of our team members has worked at corporate/retail pharmacies, spoke to what makes Pharmacy of Grace different. He says our founding principle is not just dispensing medications, but making sure patients understand how to use them. Every patient talks to a pharmacist here every time.
“This gets us back to basically what we thought we were going to do when we got out of school: taking care of the patient,” Powers told the Post.
Fox 4 Covers Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Shawnee, KS — We are incredibly grateful to Scott Kilbury and Fox 4 KC for visiting our brand-new Shawnee location on 75th Street to cover our official grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony!
The segment beautifully captured our mission to provide affordable, life-saving medications to uninsured and underinsured families across Kansas.
Highlighting the Need in Johnson County
Co-founder John Yost discussed the critical need that drove our expansion into a second Kansas location. Our original KCK pharmacy has served the community for four years, and growing to the point we knew we needed to expand. We were already delivering medications to patients at the Mercy and Truth Healthcare Ministry location in Shawnee, so the expansion there just made sense.
As John explained to Fox 4:
“The reality is there are more uninsured in Johnson County than in Wyandotte County. Right around the corner from here, within walking distance, there are 2,000 uninsured.”
Real Impact: Kerri’s Story
The Fox 4 segment also spotlighted the real-world impact through the story of Kerri Neighbors. After being laid off and losing her health insurance, Kerri found herself on a fixed income and facing an impossible $850 bill for post-hospitalization medications.
“I would not be alive if it weren’t for them because I couldn’t afford my medicines,” Kerri shared.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we rely on grants, donations, and a unique community partnership: we accept insured patients, too.
When patients with health insurance fill their regular prescriptions with us, the funds we receive from insurance companies go directly toward covering the cost of medications for neighbors like Kerri who have nowhere else to turn.
Thank you again to Fox 4 KC for helping us share our story, and to everyone who came out to celebrate this next chapter with us!
You can see the entire story on the Fox 4 KC Website.
KSHB’s Taylor Hemness Returns to Cover Pharmacy of Grace’s Shawnee Grand Opening
Shawnee, KS — KSHB 41 reporter and anchor Taylor Hemness covered us before our doors even opened in 2022, and now he’s here for our next chapter.
Four years ago, Taylor was at Pharmacy of Grace as we were preparing to open. A Mercy and Truth Healthcare Ministry patient named Ruby walked through our doors straight from the emergency room. Ruby was the embodiment of exactly who we had built this pharmacy for. She was cycling in and out of the ER because she simply couldn’t afford the medications managing her chronic conditions. Taylor told that story, and it helped Kansas City understand why Pharmacy of Grace needed to exist.
Earlier this year, KSHB returned to cover the next chapter: the news that Pharmacy of Grace was expanding its Shawnee presence from what was essentially a closet (a small space where we could only deliver medications to Mercy and Truth patients) to a full-service pharmacy open to anyone in the community.
And this week, Taylor reached out to cover us again and celebrate our Grand Opening with us.
From Six Prescriptions to 130 a Day
When our Kansas City, Kansas location opened, the staff filled six prescriptions on the first day. Now, they’re doing about 130 every day. That growth happened entirely through word of mouth, referrals, and community trust.
CEO Michael Fink told KSHB the pharmacy identified approximately 2,000 uninsured residents in the immediate area surrounding the location of our pharmacy in Shawnee and he noted that a nearby school has 86% of students receiving subsidized lunches, a daily reminder of the families this pharmacy was built to serve. As Michael put it, Shawnee was simply a great fit.
And the Shawnee opening is not a finish line. It is the next step. More expansion plans are already being discussed.
More Than Affordable Medications
We want to be clear about something the KSHB story captured beautifully: the medications we provide are the same clinically proven, life-sustaining prescriptions available at any pharmacy. What Pharmacy of Grace does is remove the financial barrier standing between a patient and the care their doctor ordered.
The pharmacy also works to overcome language barriers, ensuring every patient fully understands how and for how long they are supposed to take their medications. Because the most expensive medication in the world is the one that never gets taken, whether because a patient couldn’t afford it or because no one took the time to make sure they understood it.
The Shawnee pharmacy is open to everyone, regardless of location or insurance status. If you have insurance, we most likely accept it. If you don’t, we’re still here for you.
A Grateful Thank You to Taylor and KSHB
We are grateful to Taylor Hemness and the entire KSHB team for their ongoing commitment to covering this mission. From Ruby’s story on day one, to the full-service pharmacy we are today. That kind of sustained, thoughtful journalism helps our community understand why our mission is so critical and it helps patients who need us find their way to our doors.
Watch the full segment on KSHB’s website here.
And if you or someone you know could benefit from what we do, our Shawnee location is open. Call to see if you qualify for the Grace Meds program for uninsured or underinsured patients, and stop by to see what makes us unique!
Fox 4 News Spotlights Pharmacy of Grace’s New Shawnee Location
Shawnee, KS — Fox 4 News came out to visit Pharmacy of Grace’s brand new Shawnee location this week, and the story they told was one we know by heart: patients struggling to afford medications will often go without. Pharmacy of Grace is a lifeline to many of those patients, and now we’re expanding into Johnson County with our new Shawnee location.
Reporter Matt Stewart talked to patient Jeanette Heater and Pharmacy of Grace President and CEO Dr. Michael Fink to talk about what it means to have access to affordable medications when the alternative is simply going without.
The Real Cost of Unaffordable Medications
What Pharmacy of Grace does is remove the financial barrier that stands between a patient and the prescription their doctor wrote, because a prescription that never gets filled doesn’t help anyone.
As Michael shared during the segment, one patient came to us with a medication regimen that would have cost her $4,400 out of pocket. Unable to afford it, she was cycling in and out of the emergency room, losing her stability, her income, and her housing in the process. Once she could access her medications consistently and affordably, everything changed. She was able to hold a job. She was able to keep an apartment. She got her life back. That is what medication access actually means: a lifeline.
The most expensive medication in the world, as we often say, is the one that is never taken, because a patient couldn’t afford it, or because no one took the time to make sure they understood how to use it. At Pharmacy of Grace, we address both of those barriers every single day.
A New Home in Johnson County
The Fox 4 segment highlighted what makes the Shawnee location so significant for this community. Johnson County is often perceived as an affluent area, but more than 31,000 residents are completely uninsured, and the neighborhoods surrounding our new pharmacy have some of the highest poverty and uninsured rates in the county. These are working families, seniors managing chronic conditions, and parents making impossible choices between groceries and prescriptions. Pharmacy of Grace wants to remove the cost barrier for these families.
Watch the Full Segment
We are grateful to Fox 4 News and reporter Matt Stewart for shining a light on this work, and a big thanks to patient Jeanette Heater for sharing her story so openly and generously.
Watch the full Fox 4 segment here.
And if you or someone you know could benefit from what we do, our Shawnee location is now open. Stop by and visit us! Our pharmacy is open to anyone in the community regardless of insurance status. Our Grace Meds program is for uninsured patients and based on income. Questions about eligibility? Give us a call and our staff will be happy to review your meds and insurance and see if you qualify.
