CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston doctor is prepared to plead guilty in federal court as part of a probe into a Mingo County pain clinic, after he allegedly let unauthorized personnel issue prescriptions under his registration number.
On Friday, federal prosecutors filed a two-count information against Dr. Augusto T. Abad, accusing the physician of participating in a scheme to defraud Medicare and conspiring to allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants at Justice Medical Clinic to use his Drug Enforcement Administration registration number.
An information, which cannot be filed without a defendant's permission, generally indicates that a defendant is cooperating with the government.
In March 2009, federal agents raided the offices of Justice Medical, located between Kermit and Crum on the Mingo-Wayne county line, and two nearby pharmacies as part of an investigation into a suspected prescription pill ring.
In an affidavit, an agent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wrote that the pain clinic catered to clients hoping for quick access to pain pills. The patients then were steered to two local pharmacies, one of which was located next door to the medical facility, according to the affidavit.
One of the pharmacies in Kermit reportedly sold almost 3.2 million hydrocodone pills in 2006, dramatically eclipsing the national average of 97,000 pills per pharmacy that year.
Abad allegedly let employees at the clinic use his DEA registration number to issue prescriptions for hydrocodone, as well as alprazolam -- commonly known as Xanax -- and the appetite suppressant phentermine.
Abad, who did not normally perform face-to-face examinations and evaluations of patients at the clinic, also allowed the clinic to collect $110,959.49 from Medicare between January 2008 and March 2009 for drugs that were not prescribed by him, according to the filing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Schwartz has asked U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. to schedule a plea hearing for Abad.
Last month, Dr. John Theodore Tiano, a former cardiology resident at Marshall University who moonlighted at the clinic between December 2005 and March 2007, pleaded guilty to similar charges. Tiano faces up to 14 years when sentenced by Copenhaver on March 18.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston doctor is prepared to plead guilty in federal court as part of a probe into a Mingo County pain clinic, after he allegedly let unauthorized personnel issue prescriptions under his registration number.
On Friday, federal prosecutors filed a two-count information against Dr. Augusto T. Abad, accusing the physician of participating in a scheme to defraud Medicare and conspiring to allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants at Justice Medical Clinic to use his Drug Enforcement Administration registration number.
An information, which cannot be filed without a defendant's permission, generally indicates that a defendant is cooperating with the government.
In March 2009, federal agents raided the offices of Justice Medical, located between Kermit and Crum on the Mingo-Wayne county line, and two nearby pharmacies as part of an investigation into a suspected prescription pill ring.
In an affidavit, an agent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wrote that the pain clinic catered to clients hoping for quick access to pain pills. The patients then were steered to two local pharmacies, one of which was located next door to the medical facility, according to the affidavit.
One of the pharmacies in Kermit reportedly sold almost 3.2 million hydrocodone pills in 2006, dramatically eclipsing the national average of 97,000 pills per pharmacy that year.
Abad allegedly let employees at the clinic use his DEA registration number to issue prescriptions for hydrocodone, as well as alprazolam -- commonly known as Xanax -- and the appetite suppressant phentermine.
Abad, who did not normally perform face-to-face examinations and evaluations of patients at the clinic, also allowed the clinic to collect $110,959.49 from Medicare between January 2008 and March 2009 for drugs that were not prescribed by him, according to the filing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Schwartz has asked U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. to schedule a plea hearing for Abad.
Last month, Dr. John Theodore Tiano, a former cardiology resident at Marshall University who moonlighted at the clinic between December 2005 and March 2007, pleaded guilty to similar charges. Tiano faces up to 14 years when sentenced by Copenhaver on March 18.
Abad's medical license next expires on June 30, and he does not have any disciplinary cases against him on file, according to the West Virginia Board of Medicine's Web site.
Abad listed his primary specialty as internal medicine, with secondary specialties of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism.
During the March 2009 raid, agents confiscated employees' timecards and records of thousands of prescriptions at the Kermit Sav-Rite. They also seized financial and banking records of James P. Wooley, who owns the two pharmacies linked to Justice Medical in the probe.
Agents found prescription pads from Justice Medical in a desk drawer at the pharmacy, according to an inventory of items seized. Agents also searched Abad's Charleston home as part of the investigation.
The pill ring generated millions of dollars of business for the medical facility and the pharmacies, much of which was paid for by Medicare and Medicaid, an affidavit filed in support of the search warrants maintains.
Many of the patients, seen predominantly by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, paid cash, including a $150 fee for first-time visitors, the affidavit maintains.
Business was so busy at the pharmacies that employees put out snacks for customers as they waited, the affidavit states. One undercover agent observed a cash register that was so full that its drawer would not close properly.
Federal authorities launched the investigation following a December 2007 complaint to the DEA, according to court documents. The anonymous tipster said Wooley and Debra Justice, his former secretary, hatched a plan to open a pain clinic that would funnel all of its prescriptions to Wooley's pharmacies, and that they were "handing out drugs like candy."
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.
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problem
This solution will also work for any tax paid employee. If found guilty
of trying to defraud the American tax payer, the person or persons will
instantly become homeless. All their possessions would be sold and the
money returned to the American government. Also anything their wives,
husbands, or dependent children owned would be sold. Anyone else that
was knowlingly involved, and their families would suffer the same fate.
" TAXPAYER FRAUD WOULD STOP, MEDICAL FRAUD WOULD STOP " So why has no
one in government recommended this before? I wonder??????????????