MILLINOCKET – Three weeks after an interim health care plan was approved by a federal bankruptcy judge, about 1,300 Great Northern Paper Inc. employees and retirees are still waiting for their health-prescription cards.

John DiCentes of Millinocket, a GNP retiree, and hundreds of others are wondering whether they will receive the new cards before the plan expires April 21.

Great Northern’s self-insured health care plan essentially ended when the paper company ran out of money, leaving coverage in peril for 1,130 employees at its paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket and for 677 people who retired from both the paper company and Pinkham Lumber Co. since 1992.

An order approved by Judge Louis Kornreich three weeks ago established a new interim health care program with temporary funding. But those attempting to use the program for their prescriptions have found little evidence that it works.

“We can’t get any answers from anybody,” said DiCentes.

“People need their prescriptions but many can’t afford to pay cash for them,” said DiCentes, a member of the Katahdin Area Retirees Association. “People are cutting their pills in half to make them last longer and some retirees are going without their medication, which could lead to life-threatening situations.”

DiCentes said many retirees who live on fixed incomes are being forced to choose between heating their homes or buying food and filling their expensive prescriptions. He said his telephone has been ringing off the hook.

“One man has heart problems and his wife has cancer,” he said. “There is a widow on a pacemaker. All people are asking for is their prescriptions so they won’t have to go to the hospital. What is going on?”

Diane A. Khiel, an Orono attorney who is working with GNP retirees, said Wednesday she has been unable to find out why coverage is taking so long to set up.

Stephen Ryan, president and chief executive officer of Maine Network For Health, the organization directed by the court to set up the new health plan, said he hopes new health-prescription cards will be mailed out next week.

Ryan said setting up the new health plan is very complex and legally challenging because it involves many stakeholders, including affected workers, advocates for seniors, care providers and creditors along with their attorneys.

He said the organization is trying to set up the plan in a fraction of the time that it would normally take to create such a system, which is at least five months.

“People’s health depends on this,” he said. “There is a lot of money at stake and there is a lot of other interests at stake so this needs to be done right.”

Ryan said the new plan must meet strict regulations of the federal ERISA law, which protects employees’ benefits. He said information needed by the plan administrator – Comprehensive Benefits Administrator of Exeter, N.H., and Burlington, Vt. – was only collected last week. The 1,800 participants in the health plan had to decide whether they would stay with the new plan or opt out of it by Feb. 18.

About 500 employees and retirees opted out of the interim plan, he said.

Ryan said CBA now is loading information about eligibility, health providers and how they should be paid into its computer system. He said the design of the ID cards has been approved. In the next few days, a description of benefits will be approved along with the ERISA-related provisions. “A lot has been put into place,” he said.

“GNP’s human resource office, my office and a number of advocates have been fielding telephone calls telling patients that the coverage was effective Feb. 5,” said Ryan. “It is only for emergency or urgent services, but don’t not get services. Your coverage will be there. It is just a matter of putting the claims-processing piece put into place.”

Ryan and others said people should keep their receipts. He said health providers are being told to render care to people they believe are in an urgent or an emergency situation. Claims processing will be taken care of later. He suggested participants in the plan go to Millinocket Regional Hospital or some of the “in network” hospitals and call ahead to make sure they are participating in the plan.

He said it is important for people to remember the coverage was never intended to be comprehensive.

“It is providing some level of financial assistance during a very difficult time when otherwise there would be none,” he said. “It doesn’t solve all of the people’s problems, and was not designed to meet everyone’s health care needs. It was designed to address emergency and urgent situations.”