Pike travel nurse indicted in federal crackdown on health care fraud – Mountain Top Media

BECKLEY, W.Va. — A Pike County travel nurse who has been under investigation for the past two years has now been indicted on federal drug charges.

Jacqueline Brewster, 54, of Belfry, has been charged in U.S. District Court in Beckley, W.Va., with obtaining controlled substances by fraud, tampering with consumer products, and wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information under false pretenses.

Federal officials say Brewster used her credentials as an LPN to determine which patients had been prescribed hydromorphone, also known by the brand name Dilaudid, while she was working at Raleigh General Hospital, in Beckley. She is accused of then accessing the patient vials and diverting some of the drug for her own use, then refiling them with a clear substance to make them appear full.

Brewster is one of 193 defendants recently charged as part of a National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action announced last week by the U.S. Department of Justice. That action has also included the recent indictments of former Paintsville doctor Don Bryson and Chapmanville doctor Brian McDevitt.