Oklahoma City, OK – Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit has filed a charge against a Woodward woman for allegedly filing a false workers’ compensation claim.
According to the charge filed in Oklahoma County District Court, Edith J. Wilcoxson, 59, submitted a claim in December 2007 alleging she injured her lower back, hips, right leg and right foot in May 2006 while working as a medic for the Woodward County Emergency Medical Services. She filed a supplemental form in 2008 to add her neck as an injury.
Wilcoxson testified under oath at a workers’ compensation hearing in August 2008 that she had never received any previous injuries to her neck, and claimed she had never been told by a doctor that she had problems with her neck. She also testified in September 2008 that she had never injured her neck in a motor vehicle accident.
However, an investigation by the Attorney General’s office found numerous medical reports showing Wilcoxson had been notified by doctors of degenerative disc disease and a bulging disc in her spine prior to 2006.
In May 1999, Wilcoxson was involved in a motor vehicle accident while working with the Woodward Police Department and was admitted to the Woodward Hospital. Workers’ compensation paperwork filed by Wilcoxson after the accident listed her head, neck and left shoulder as injuries sustained from the accident. She subsequently visited several doctors who confirmed neck injuries, but denied a recommendation for neck surgery in 1999.
Wilcoxson also testified in a February 2001 workers’ compensation hearing that she had sustained an injury to her neck due to the motor vehicle accident.
The Attorney General’s Workers’ Compensation and Insurance Fraud Unit is the only Oklahoma law enforcement agency dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of workers’ compensation fraud. The Unit also helps raise public awareness of fraud in Oklahoma.
Source: OK AG’s Office