IRVING, Texas — An Irving man was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a $7 million COVID-19 testing fraud, federal officials announced Thursday.
Terrance Barnard, 40, was indicted in December 2022 and pleaded guilty in September 2023 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and aggravated identity theft. Barnard was sentenced Wednesday, DOJ officials said in a release, and a judge ordered Barnard to pay more than $7 million in restitution.
“These defendants took advantage of unsuspecting patients – and a global pandemic – to steal millions of dollars from insurers using private patient information,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton. “This sort of crime breaches patients’ trust and raises the cost of healthcare for all – at a time when access to medical care feels precarious to many.”
According to plea papers, Barnard admitted that he and his co-conspirators accessed private patient information – including names, dates of birth, and insurance subscriber numbers – through various clinics where Barnard worked as a contract lab technician. 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 co-conspirator accessed the clinics’ confidential electronic medical records to obtain large amounts of patient information at once.
According to the DOJ, Barnard and his co-conspirators 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.
Barnard admitted that the “labs” at which the co-conspirators 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, 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, according to DOJ's release.
The following people were also charged in the scheme:
- Connie Jo Clampitt
- William Paul Gray
- Don Hogg
All three pleaded guilty to their respective charges. Gray was sentenced to 54 months in prison for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, and Clampitt and Hogg await sentencing on April 10 and May 1, respectively.
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