CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Five years of probation and 500 hours of community service is the sentence handed down in federal court for fraudulent prescription activity by a Morgantown doctor.
Chad Poage, 35, was an orthopedic surgeon with offices in Morgantown and Fairmont and wrote multiple prescription for narcotics for his own use between November of 2015 to March 2018. He was sentenced Monday following a May guilty plea.
Poage admitted to obtaining controlled substances by fraudulently writing prescriptions using colleagues’ Drug Enforcement Administration numbers and presenting stolen driver’s licenses to pick up fraudulently prescribed controlled substance for his personal use
U.S. Attorney Bill Powell said addiction has spread across the spectrum.
“Physicians who breach the trust given them often find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Professionals are not immune from the power of addiction. This case provides a sad but powerful commentary on the depth of our opioid crisis. We thank our partners in the Health Care Fraud Unit of the Department of Justice, along with our law enforcement partners for the important work being done in this district,” Powell said in a statement.
Poage was one of 60 people indicted in a federal health care fraud investigation last April.