U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Fourth Defendant Pleads Guilty in $7 Million COVID-19 Testing Fraud (USAO ND-TX 09/14/2023) (2023-09-15)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas, dated Thursday, September 14, 2023, announcing that Terrance Barnard, 40, of Irving, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez to Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft and Aiding and Abetting Aggravated Identity Theft. According to plea papers, Barnard admitted using patient information obtained through clinics to submit claims to insurers for COVID-19 testing that was never performed, through entities including TC Diagnostics, ME Diagnostics and PHR Diagnostics. The release states that these three entities submitted approximately $30 million in claims and were paid more than $7 million. Barnard agreed to a $7.29 million forfeiture "money judgment" and faces up to seven years in federal prison.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

PRESS RELEASE



Fourth Defendant Pleads Guilty in
$7 Million COVID-19 Testing Fraud
Thursday, September 14, 2023

For Immediate Release

U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas

An Irving man pleaded guilty today to submitting fraudulent insurance claims for COVID-19 testing,
resulting in a more than $7 million loss to insurers, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District
of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Terrance Barnard, 40, was indicted in December. He pleaded guilty today to Conspiracy to Commit
Health Care Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft and Aiding and Abetting Aggravated Identity Theft
before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez.

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.

Mr. Barnard now faces up to seven years in federal prison. According to the terms of his plea
agreement, he has agreed to a $7.29 million forfeiture money judgment and will forfeit a number of
items seized during the investigation, including $2.5 million in funds from numerous bank accounts,
two residences, six vehicles, and six luxury watches.

Also charged in the scheme are Connie Jo Clampitt, 52, William Paul Gray, 50, and Don Hogg, 37.
Clampitt, Hogg and Gray have each pled guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in November
2023.
The Dallas Regional Office of the United States Department of Labor – Employee Benefits Security
Administration, the Dallas Office of the Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, the Texas
Department of Insurance Fraud Unit's Fort Worth Field Office, and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Renee Hunter
is prosecuting the case; Assistant U.S. Attorney Dimitri Rocha is handling the forfeiture.

For more information about the Justice Department’s response to wrongdoing connected to the
COVID-19 pandemic, visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Contact

Erin Dooley

Public Affairs

214-659-8707

erin.dooley@usdoj.gov

Updated September 14, 2023



Topics

CORONAVIRUS



HEALTH CARE FRAUD



IDENTITY THEFT



Component

USAO - Texas, Northern


File and source

File

2023-09-15-Fourth-Defendant-Pleads-Guilty-in-7-Million-COVID-19-Testing-Fraud-USAO-ND-TX-09-14-2023.pdf

Size

167,091 bytes

SHA-256

67bff66e94f312c02805e90bcacc3600baa576d567f207d727b415a1f5283408

Our copy

2023-09-15-Fourth-Defendant-Pleads-Guilty-in-7-Million-COVID-19-Testing-Fraud-USAO-ND-TX-09-14-2023.pdf

Original

www.oig.dol.gov