Clark County woman gets 1 month jail time, home confinement for fraud scheme

A former Clark County resident was sentenced earlier this month to a month in jail and home confinement for filing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent claims for medical bills and treatments.

Darcy Brioso, 44, pleaded guilty in July to first-degree theft and first-degree identity theft. Clark County Superior Court Judge Suzan Clark sentenced Brioso on Aug. 7 to 30 days in jail and 150 days of electronic home confinement in Spokane County, court records show. She was also ordered to pay more than $213,000 in restitution to insurance company Aflac.

Brioso’s conviction was the result of an investigation by the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner, which looks into instances of insurance fraud and works with the Washington State Patrol and state and local prosecutors on criminal cases.

According to a news release from the insurance commissioner’s office, Brioso and her foster daughter, Delta Lynn Jackson, were charged as co-defendants in the case in March. Both women previously lived in Clark County. The charges against Jackson were later dropped.

The news release says Brioso collected more than $400,000 from Aflac by filing fraudulent claims over the course of three years, from 2012 until 2015.

“The claims involved fake medical bills for injuries, surgeries, hospital stays and medical treatments for herself and six other people. The bills listed medical providers in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. Many of the bogus injuries also involved subsequent short-term disability claims,” the news release says.

Among Brioso’s fraudulent claims were $91,000 for herself for an ankle fracture after an ATV accident, a pneumonia diagnosis and broken bones from a car crash, according to the commissioner’s office. She also filed claims amounting to $34,000 in medical bills for her daughter for car crash injuries, a liver cyst and short-term disability claims.

Insurance fraud costs the average family $400 to $700 per year in increased premiums, according to the commissioner’s office. Suspected fraud can be reported on the office’s website.