Under the federal Social Security law, states that take federal money for their Medicaid programs are required to provide health services to poor children, including things like regular checkups, immunizations, and dental and vision care. But Florida's own statistics showed that from 2003 to 2004, more than 500,000 children on Medicaid didn't receive any kind of preventative health care services at all.

It was those kinds of numbers that caused Steven Eiseman, Jr., of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, which has a long history of representing poor children, to ask Stuart Singer of Boies, Schiller & Flexner to team up with him and Miller, Keffer & Bullock on a lawsuit. In 2005 they filed a class action on behalf of Florida children enrolled in Medicaid—against state officials responsible for administering the program—alleging violations under the Civil Rights Act. The suit seeks to force the state to provide health services to children by, among other things, making Medicaid reimbursement rates high enough so that affected children have the same access to care as the general public and providing sufficient outreach programs to educate the public about the rights of children on Medicaid.

The case is by far the biggest pro bono project undertaken by Boies, Schiller. Last year its lawyers put in more than 7,000 hours, which included taking and defending 100 depositions. So far, the work has paid off. In January 2007 a Miami federal district court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss, and a trial date is set for August. Singer thinks the impact of the case has the potential to be far-reaching. "A successful outcome affirmed on appeal would benefit children in other states and hopefully reverse a series of recent adverse decisions on Medicaid rights," he says.

—Andrew Longstreth | July 1, 2009

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