One Veteran, Nine Missing Teeth, and an Unpaid Bill
Robert Himschoot is 81 years old, lives in a Boulder City veterans home, and carries a 100% disability rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He has Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and chronic hip and knee pain. When he had nine teeth removed, he expected the VA to cover the cost. Instead, he got a bill.
The problem is not Himschoot’s eligibility. Veterans with a 100% disability rating are entitled to VA dental care. The problem is a contract dispute between two institutions: the Southern Nevada Veterans Home, a state-operated skilled nursing facility where Himschoot lives, and the VA Southern Nevada Health Care clinic, a federally operated facility. Neither has accepted responsibility for the bill, and Himschoot is caught in the middle.
A Bureaucratic Gap With a Real Physical Cost
Nine missing teeth affect more than appearance. Himschoot told the Nevada Independent that chewing is difficult and food regularly gets lodged in the gaps, forcing him to use toothpicks to remove it. For a man managing Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, poor nutrition caused by impaired chewing is not a minor inconvenience.
“Physical wreck.”
Robert Himschoot, describing himself to the Nevada Independent, 2025
This case points to a structural problem in how the VA coordinates care for veterans who live in state-operated skilled nursing facilities. When a veteran leaves a VA-run facility, the lines of billing responsibility can blur. Veterans in mixed-jurisdiction facilities may fall into coverage gaps that neither the federal VA system nor the state facility is required to close.
VA Dental Eligibility Rules Are Clear. Enforcement Is Not.
Federal law grants dental benefits to veterans with a 100% service-connected disability rating. The VA’s own eligibility guidelines are unambiguous on this point. What the guidelines do not resolve is which entity pays when a veteran receives care at or through a facility that is not directly operated by the VA.
That gap is the mechanism that left Himschoot in debt. Without a formal agreement spelling out billing responsibility between the state home and the VA clinic, the veteran becomes the de facto payer of last resort.
What You Can Do Now
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Call the VA’s main veterans’ benefits line at (800) 827-1000 and ask how dental billing is handled for veterans living in state-operated skilled nursing facilities. If you are a veteran or caregiver in this situation, request a written statement of your dental coverage before any procedure.
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Contact the VA Office of Inspector General at oig.va.gov/hotline to file a complaint about billing disputes or denial of covered care. The OIG investigates mismanagement and coverage failures within the VA system.
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Call your U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to request a Government Accountability Office review of dental coverage gaps for veterans in state-run long-term care facilities. Name Himschoot’s case specifically.
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Contact Nevada’s two U.S. senators directly. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto can be reached at (702) 388-5020. Senator Jacky Rosen’s Las Vegas office is at (702) 388-0205. Ask each office to intervene with the VA on behalf of veterans in state-operated facilities who are being billed for covered care.
Sources
Nevada Independent: Disabled Nevada Veteran Had Nine Teeth Pulled and Got Stuck With the Bill
VA.gov: Dental Care Eligibility for Veterans, Including 100% Disability Rating
VA Office of Inspector General: Hotline for Reporting VA Mismanagement and Coverage Failures