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Associated Press © Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Thursday, March 15, 2007

INDIAN ISLAND - The Penobscot Indian Nation's troubled mail-order pharmacy has been purchased by a company that plans to move the operation to Aroostook County.

I Care Pharmacy this week began filling prescriptions for MaineCare clients previously served by PIN Rx on Indian Island.

Ten workers are running the operation on Indian Island but the company plans to relocate next month to Fort Fairfield.

"We're trying to keep this in Maine so it employs Maine people and Maine gets to keep the revenue," said Jerry Tanner, president and co-owner of I Care Pharmacy.

The mail-order pharmacy says it will bring 40 jobs and a $9 million investment to Aroostook County. Eventually, the company envisions creating a warehouse and distribution center in a central location in Maine, its owners said.

PIN Rx, which announced it would close last month, is under investigation by the state for allegedly dispensing $3 million worth of drugs, including controlled substances, without verifying prescriptions last year.

The state Pharmacy Board will hold a hearing next month to decide whether disciplinary action is warranted for two former PIN Rx pharmacists.

The Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance helped the Penobscot Indian Nation develop the pharmacy, which opened in October 2005, with the goals of providing economic development and filling MaineCare prescriptions.

The program for low-income Mainers was expected to save an estimated $5 million a year.

But fewer than 1 percent of MaineCare participants -- about 3,000 people in all -- switched from local pharmacies to the PIN Rx mail-order program.

In Maine, I Care Pharmacy now will serve those customers and has long-term plans of serving clients throughout Maine and in other states.

Economic development officials said the company's decision to locate in Aroostook County was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Walt Elish, president and CEO of the Aroostook Partnership for Progress, said he approached Tanner about a month ago.

Tanner and business partner Terry Greenier have a home health-care company called Immediate Care as well as I Care Pharmacy in Alaska. Tanner lives in Fort Fairfield and Greenier is a native of that town.

The sale was completed last week.

"It was a win-win situation for everyone because we were able to keep those MaineCare patients with no interruption to their service," Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis said.

Trish Riley, director of the Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance, said she was pleased an agreement was reached that lets MaineCare recipients keep getting prescriptions filled by mail.

"Our interest has always been in having a Maine-based mail-order option available, especially for MaineCare people that are homebound," she said.

Despite PIN Rx's failure to live up to expectations and its current legal difficulties, Riley credited the Penobscot Nation with laying the groundwork for the mail-order program.

"They got it up and going," she said.