Ortho Surgeon Pleads Guilty to Drug Charge

A Morgantown, West Virginia, orthopedic physician has pleaded guilty to obtaining controlled substances by fraudulently writing prescriptions using his colleagues’ Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) numbers and using stolen driver’s licenses to pick up the fraudulently written prescriptions.

Chad Poage, D.O., is an orthopedic physician who worked in a practice with locations in Morgantown and Fairmont in West Virginia.

From November 2015 to March 2018, Poage wrote 30 fraudulent prescriptions for his own personal use. The prescriptions were for a total of approximately 1,330 50-milligram tablets of Tramadol, 420 5-milligram tablets of Diazepam, and 50 30-milligram tablets of acetaminophen-codeine no. 3.

On each of these prescriptions, Poage either wrote colleagues’ DEA registration numbers without their authorization or wrote them out to a patient knowing that he would pick up the prescription for his own use. On multiple occasions, Poage used stolen driver’s licenses to pick up the fraudulent prescriptions.

The DEA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and West Virginia State Police investigated the case. The case was brought as part of the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid (ARPO) Strike Force, under supervision by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia.

A federal grand jury indicted Poage in April. Trial Attorney Patrick Mott of the Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Wagner of the Northern District of West Virginia were in charge of prosecuting the case.

Poage pleaded guilty to one count of acquiring or obtaining possession of a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge. His sentencing is scheduled for a later date.

The ARPO Strike Force is made up of prosecutors and data analysts with the Health Care Fraud Unit of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the region and special agents with the FBI, HHS-OIG and DEA.

Since its inception in October 2018, the ARPO Strike Force has charged 60 defendants in 11 districts. The Health Care Fraud Unit maintains 14 strike forces operating in 23 districts and has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion.