GREENSBORO, N.C. — Roderick Peoples is in many ways a hero. A military veteran, Peoples served with both the Marines and Navy during his 21-year career. He spent time in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I loved my time in the military, but at times it got tough,” Peoples said.
His tour of duty came with a heavy price. Peoples has PTSD and some other medical issues connected to his service. A recent health scare forced his wife to call 911.
“I was scared. I called the ambulance company and the ambulance took him to the hospital,” Sandra Peoples said.
Her husband would spend several days in the hospital before going to another location for further rehabilitation. Now, back home, Peoples is doing much better.
It seemed like everything was going well until a bill came in the mail from the ambulance company. The company was seeking almost $700. The claim was eventually sent to collections.
“I was thinking what on earth was going on? I thought the bill was paid for,” Peoples said.
The bill should have been paid through his insurance with the VA. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up or a mistake and the claim was not properly submitted.
“It’s not like we have that kind of money lying around,” Peoples said.
Almost immediately after receiving the bill, Peoples contacted the VA in both Salisbury, North Carolina, and Salem, Virginia. Peoples said he was often on hold for several hours at a time. Even after waiting that long, he told WFMY News 2, he was unable to reach someone who could help him.
“It was awful, you should not have to wait that long to get something resolved,” Peoples said.
After dealing with the issue himself for more than a month with no resolution, Peoples reached out to us. We immediately gathered information related to the ambulance trip and then contacted a representative at the VA.
After explaining the situation, the representative told us he would investigate the matter immediately and get back to us as soon as he could. It didn’t take long before the representative reached back out to us and to Peoples.
“They did call us and said they would take care of (the bill),” Peoples said.
Exactly why the issue occurred is a bit unclear, but the VA did take care of the expenses and reached back out to Peoples to make sure the issue was resolved with the collection’s agency.
“It feels good, (it’s) a weight lifted off our shoulders, you guys did an awesome job,” Peoples said.
Once the matter was resolved the VA sent us an email that reads in part; "Just spoke to Mr. Peoples, when I asked if he had heard back from the collection company, he advised that “everything was taken care of.” I asked if there was anything further we needed to do on the VA’s side, and he advised there was not. I thanked him for the update."
Peoples is still dealing with some long term health issues, but at least he no longer has to worry about a collections agency trying to get him to pay an ambulance bill.