A former Tustin podiatrist is accused of insurance fraud for billing several patients for medical services she never performed, according to prosecutors.
Dr. Renae Louise Witt, 47, of La Pine, Oregon, was awaiting extradition after being charged on Jan. 16 with seven felony counts of insurance fraud with sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime over $100,000 and loss of over $65,000, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office (OCDA).
While practicing in Tustin between May 12, 2015, and March 31, 2017, Witt allegedly submitted fraudulent billing for services not rendered on six patients after their treatment was complete, prosecutors say.
She billed Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Cross/Blue Shield $174,395 for various medical services she never performed and deposited large sums of money from the insurance transactions into her business bank account, the OCDA alleges. Witt moved to Oregon this past Nov. 6.
Anthem Blue Cross contacted the OCDA to report potentially fraudulent billing by Witt. After an investigation by the Orange County prosecutors, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies arrested her in La Pine on Friday.
Witt could be sent to state prison for 16 years if she is found guilty, according to the OCDA.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.