Thursday, October 1, 2026
The former owner of Kings Pharmacy in Long Beach was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on March 1 after auditors said he bilked the New York State Health Insurance Program by more than $700,000 for cancer treatment prescriptions that physicians denied preparing.
The former owner of the pharmacy, Jay Kirschner, pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud last year. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said Kirschner was also ordered to pay $2.4 million in restitution. DiNapoli’s office worked with both the FBI and DEA on the case.
In a press release on March 16, DiNapoli said auditors identified overpayments for cancer treatment prescriptions that physicians denied preparing. Signatures on certain prescriptions were forged, auditors said.
“Time and again we hear about fraud and waste in the health care industry,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “This kind of crime drives up health care costs for everyone. In this case, because of just one pharmacy’s greed, patients and taxpayers got their pockets picked to the tune of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.”
DiNapoli said auditors examined a random sample of 250 prescription claims and were able to identify $48,078 in overpayments. An extrapolation of these overpayments to the broader population of Kings Pharmacy prescriptions resulted in a projected overpayment of at least $451,817, DiNapoli said.
In addition, auditors also identified a net overpayment of $139,382 from 19 prescriptions for treating cancer. They concluded that the state overpaid Kings Pharmacy by at least $591,199, DiNapoli said.
This amount, DiNapoli said, is over and above $124,280 in overpayments identified by an audit of NYSHIP that was conducted by Medco Health Solutions, Inc., the State’s pharmacy benefit manager. In total, overpayments between DiNapoli and Medco’s audits amounted to $715,479.
NYSHIP covers active and retired state, local government and school district employees and their dependents. The Empire Plan is the primary health benefits plan for NYSHIP and includes prescription drug coverage, DiNapoli noted.
DiNapoli, whose office regularly performs audits of NYSHIP payments, recommended UHC recover the overpayments, investigate and assess the factors that led to improper claim submissions, and implement policies to review high-risk claim payments. The audit, DiNapoli said, is part of his ongoing drive to root out health care fraud in New York State.
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