A Dallas woman was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison for conning insurance companies out of more than $7 million by submitting claims for COVID-19 tests that were never performed.
Connie Jo Clampitt, 53, is one of four people to have pleaded guilty in connection with the scam.
According to court documents, she and her co-conspirators accessed patient information, including names, dates of birth and insurance identification numbers through various clinics where one defendant worked as a lab technician. They then used the patient data to submit phony COVID-19 test claims to insurers including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, United Healthcare, Aetna, Humana and Molina Health Care.
In connection with her guilty plea, Clampitt acknowledged that three “labs” where the testing supposedly took place were shell entities that never actually operated as labs.
Earlier, Terrance Barnard was sentenced to seven years in prison and William Paul Gray to four and a half years for their roles in the fraud. The fourth defendant, Don Hogg, is scheduled for sentencing on May 1 before U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, who is presiding over the case.
At Wednesday’s sentencing, Clampitt’s lawyer, Lukas Garcia of Chris Lewis & Associates of Dallas, noted that his client had cooperated fully with authorities after her indictment in December 2022, and that her cooperation was instrumental in inducing her three co-defendants to plead guilty, thereby saving U.S. taxpayers the expense of a costly trial or trials.
Garcia said Clampitt’s participation in the COVID-19 testing scheme was “a huge mistake on her part but isn’t indicative of who she is.”
Clampitt, a mother and grandmother, apologized before Judge Starr for her “self-destructive” conduct and “poor judgment.” To her family, she said, “I let you down in the worst possible way.” And she apologized “to all those I’ve harmed.”
In addition to her prison time, Judge Starr sentenced her to two years of supervised release when her incarceration ends. She and her co-defendants have been ordered to pay, jointly and severally, restitution of more than $7 million to the victimized insurance companies.
The chief prosecutor in the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Renee M. Hunter.
According to court records, Barnard is represented by, among others, Paul Taliaferro Lund of Burleson, Pate & Gibson of Dallas. Gray is represented by Nick Oberheiden of Dallas and Lynette S. Byrd of Houston, and Hogg by Jeffrey T. Hall of Dallas.
The case number in the Northern District of Texas is 3:22-cr-00469.