A Texas man was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a $7 million COVID-19 testing fraud. Terrance Barnard, 40, was indicted in December 2022 and pleaded guilty in September 2023 to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to pay more than $7 million in restitution. According to plea papers, Mr. Barnard admitted that he and his coconspirators accessed private patient information — including names, dates of birth, and insurance subscriber numbers — through various clinics where Barnard worked as a contract lab technician. Mr. Barnard admitted that on some occasions, he took photographs of patient information and stored the images on “burner” phones, and on other occasions, he and a coconspirator accessed the clinics’ confidential electronic medical records to obtain large amounts of patient information at once. They then used the patient information to submit claims to insurance providers — including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, United Healthcare, Aetna, Humana, and Molina Health Care — for COVID-19 testing that was never performed. (The patients had not requested COVID-19 testing, nor were they aware their information was being used to submit claims.)
Mr. Barnard admitted that the “labs” at which the coconspirators claimed the testing occurred, including TC Diagnostics, ME Diagnostics, and PHR Diagnostics, were, in fact, shell entities that never operated as labs. Collectively, these three entities submitted approximately $30 million in claims and were paid more than $7 million in reimbursements for fake testing. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Mr. Barnard agreed to forfeit almost $2.5 million from bank accounts tied to him or his family, several real properties, five vehicles, and five luxury watches. Also charged in the scheme were Connie Jo Clampitt, William Paul Gray, and Don Hogg, all of whom submitted guilty pleas. Mr. Gray was sentenced to 54 months in prison for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud; Ms. Clampitt and Mr. Hogg await sentencing on April 10 and May 1, respectively.
