Bentleyville businessman sentenced to prison
A Bentleyville pharmacy owner who pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, unlawful dispensing of a controlled substance and filing a false claim was sentenced to 22 to 44 months in prison.
Andrew Kuzy, 61, of 531 Warrick Drive, South Strabane Township, was sentenced Wednesday before Washington County Judge Gary Gilman following an open plea agreement in April.
Kuzy, who owned Kuzy’s Pharmacy and Bentleyville Personal Care Home at 808 Main St., Bentleyville, was accused of submitting fraudulent prescription claims to insurance companies, stealing more than $346,000 and providing powerful prescription drugs, including oxycodone, to patients without proper prescriptions.
The case unraveled in February 2012 after state police Trooper Marty Gonglik pulled over a vehicle driven by Edward G. Zupancic, 50, of Scenery Hill, and discovered Zupancic possessed a dying amputee’s prescription for 360 oxycodone tablets that had just been filled at Kuzy’s Drug Store. Zupancic is serving a 5-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in November 2013 in Washington County Court to charges of illegally obtaining drugs and conspiracy in a case that led to a dozen other arrests.
In March 2012, Kuzy’s pharmacy closed after members of the attorney general’s office, the FBI and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration served a search warrant on the pharmacy. Investigators determined Kuzy used 132 customers to bill insurance companies for medications they never received, fraudulently netting $346,326.
According to the criminal complaint, Kuzy’s alleged fraud included at least 36 customers of Medicaid and at least 96 customers of private insurance and prescription plans. Records showed six prescriptions were billed by Kuzy for a customer after her death. According to the attorney general’s office, Kuzy mastered a fraud scheme called “calendar billing,” where prescriptions were billed as soon as the insurance companies would accept the billing even though the medications were not dispensed.
Investigators said Kuzy confessed to the charges against him.
In addition to the prison sentence, Gilman also sentenced Kuzy to 5 years of probation, ordered him to pay $346,326.21 in restitution and undergo a 6-month driver’s license suspension.
Kuzy, who was free on a $500,000 unsecured bond, reported to Washington County jail Monday to await transfer to a state correctional facility.