North Georgia veteran receives mysterious medical bill
The medical bill Jeff Harmon says he should have never recieved from the Atlanta VA Clinic. (Courtesy: Jeff Harmon)
UPDATE: Piedmont Urgent Care, the medical clinic where Dr. Melody Bray-Ross is listed as employed by the Georgia Medical Board, says they cannot comment on this story due to state and federal privacy laws.
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TRION, Ga. (WDEF)- A North Georgia veteran is raising alarm bells about a mysterious medical bill he received.
Jeff Harmon is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm who lives in Trion.
However, he says despite being denied Veterans Affairs benefits, he was sent a medical bill by their office in Atlanta anyway.
Harmon said, “When the VA reps did call me on December 20th, he could not find me. His supervisor could not find me in any system. I’ve never been enrolled in any VA regional health care anywhere in the United States.”
Harmon says he received a bill for a medical procedure that allegedly occurred on February 3, 2023.
On the medical statement from the Atlanta VA office, it says Harmon is being charged for a community care urgent care visit.
This left him confused as he showed us documents that prove he was at work on that date in Walker County.
Harmon said, “If you get a bill for a service, I don’t mind paying the bill if I did get the service but I’ve never gotten that service.”
He says that did go to his primary doctor in Trion the day before on February 2, 2023, and shared the bill from that appointment with us.
The response to Harmon from Congresswoman Greene’s office. (Courtesy: Jeff Harmon)
In order to answer why he was getting a medical bill from nearly 100 miles away, he reached out to Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene’s office to ask them to investigate.
In a response to Harmon, her office said their investigation found that he was in the VA system, and that the visit had occurred according to their record, although their report lists that visit as February 23, 2023.
The response lists the alleged doctor, provider, and address in Atlanta the VA believes Harmon went to.
Harmon contests, “I was at work that day. I’ve never met this doctor, never spoke with the doctor, never been to the facility where this doctor works.”
Perhaps one of the things that alarms Harmon the most about his experience over the last year, is the difficulty he says he’s had in contacting them.
He says their billing department has a non-existent phone line, and played over two minutes of phone option selections that led nowhere for us.
Additionally, when we attempted to contact the VA, we also ran into a non-existent phone line for their media relations department.
Also, the doctor listed in Congresswoman Greene’s response, Dr. Melody Bray-Ross, is a licensed doctor according to the Georgia Medical Board.
However, she is listed as practicing at a different address outside of Atlanta in the suburb of McDonough.
We have reached out to her clinic but have not heard back.
In addition, the address listed in that billing, 3350 Riverwood Parkway in Atlanta, does not list a medical office according to our searches.
The number provided in the response for the apparent medical clinic at that Atlanta address also is a dead end as a recorded voice says there is no medical office there.
This leaves Harmon concerned he is not the only person with an unintended medical bill.
He said, “It just seems, I wonder how many other veterans are getting scammed out of 30 dollar co-pays or bills they have never been to. Big question is, who got paid and where is that money going to?”
Harmon says he is continuing to explore options to continue looking into the situation.
