Mainline Pharmacy to close 9 stores, including Harrison City site

Mainline Pharmacy has announced nine of its 11 locations will close in March, including stores in Harrison City and Blairsville.

Mainline is among area independent pharmacies that contend payments they receive for many prescription drugs, as determined by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), are far less than the cost of the medications.

According to information posted on Mainline’s Facebook page, it experienced resulting losses of more than $350,000 on about 17,500 prescriptions filled so far this year, making continued operation of the nine stores unsustainable.

The closures also will affect stores in Cambria, Somerset and Blair counties.

“We’re losing hundreds of dollars on prescriptions,” John Pastorek, who is Mainline’s director of pharmacy and one of its owners, said to the Trib on Sunday. “No other business would be able to sell their products for less than what they cost.”

In its post, Mainline cited an arthritis drug as an example: It receives a PBM-determined reimbursement of $6,677 for the drug, but that’s more than $1,100 less than what the pharmacy pays for it.

Pastorek said closure of the stores is “not even a choice at this point. These reimbursements have forced us to close.”

Rite Aid agreement

Pastorek referred to an agreement where Mainline will forward information on customers with prescription accounts to the Rite Aid location closest to each of the closing Mainline stores.

According to Pastorek, Rite Aid will not operate any of the closing Mainline stores but has said it is willing to offer positions to any of the more than 100 soon-to-be displaced Mainline employees who are interested.

Rite Aid officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the weekend.

Rite Aid also has closed several area stores in recent months — including locations in Jeannette, Hempfield, Murrysville and New Kensington — as it goes through voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Rite Aid is among major pharmacy chains that recently cut their hours of operation, citing staffing shortages.

In January, Health Mart pharmacies in Lower Burrell and Leechburg closed, citing reimbursement issues with insurance companies among contributing factors.

In its social media post addressed to customers Saturday, Mainline encouraged them to “give Rite Aid a chance to serve your needs” and, meanwhile, to “call your local Mainline location and refill any medications you may need before our closure.”

Customer information will be available through Rite Aid the day following the last date of operation at each affected Mainline store, according to the post.

Closing plan

According to Mainline, the final days of business at the nine store locations will be: March 4 in Harrison City and Ebensburg; March 5 in Hastings and Portage; March 6 in Davidsville and Altoona; March 11 in Blairsville; March 12 in Cresson; and March 13 in Nanty Glo.

Harrison City customers will be referred to the Rite Aid store farther west on Route 130. Blairsville customers will have their information forwarded to the Rite Aid at Resort Plaza in Burrell Township.

Mainline said it will continue to operate a pharmacy in Somerset and another in Nanty Glo that does business with long-term care facilities since those two locations “have some different partnerships that operate outside of the traditional PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) model.”

It described PBMs as “middlemen that contract with your insurance company and your pharmacy… In 2023, we filled more prescriptions than any of our past 40-plus years in business. Unfortunately, on over 30% of these prescriptions, we are being paid less by the (PBMs) than what it cost us to purchase the medication from our wholesaler.

“Often, a full day’s worth of profitable prescriptions doesn’t even offset one of the unprofitable prescriptions filled that today. The harsh reality is we are forced to compete on an unfair playing field. This is a plight similar to the thousands of independent pharmacies that have been forced to close across the country.”

The post indicated Mainline has “reached a point where continuing operations in the current climate is no longer viable… Unless regulatory actions are taken to address the practices of PBMs, the future of independent retail pharmacies is bleak.”

Mainline was founded in 1980, operating its first store in Cresson. Pastorek said the business grew by opening new locations and also by merging with other independent pharmacies.