Home health scammers may be back

Residents are being warned to be alert to unauthorized home health care visits after at least two homes were approached Wednesday.

El Campo Memorial Hospital administrator Steve Gularte alerted the press and the El Campo Police Department Thursday just in case these visits were fraudulent.

"We received two calls yesterday (at Mid Coast Medical Clinic)," he said. "So, they are working the neighborhoods now. How they are getting the name of the doctor, we don't know. But we are doing our internal investigation," Gularte said.

The clinic documented one of the two reports. The resident called the clinic to ask if the doctor had in fact ordered home health.

The answer was "no," Gularte said.

According to information obtained by the clinic, two nurses approached a home, saying they had home health orders given to them by a local doctor. The patient's family was suspicious, called the doctor's office and no such orders had been written.

"The patient was advised by us to be cautious of scam artists, and to not open doors if they do not feel comfortable and to double check with their doctors if they do not know that home health has been ordered for them," Gularte said, adding that in these two cases the patients took the correct action.

"It's rare that home health agencies send out two nurses on a visit. Maybe one was training, I don't know, but it's still a rare occasion," Gularte said.

A similar scam, targeting senior citizens and people with special needs, went on in September 2006. The scammers typically showed up at night or on weekends, and tried to finagle the residents into handing out identifying information.