The Legal Aid Society brought this class action lawsuit on behalf of low-income New Yorkers who were denied medically necessary dental care by the New York State Department of Health, which categorically denied dental implants, and which set strict limits on replacement dentures, root canals, and crowns for Medicaid recipients.

In May 2023, we reached a historic settlement with DOH to expand dental coverage for the roughly five million adults on Medicaid, including implants, root canals, crowns, and replacement dentures. Most significantly, this settlement ends the strict limit denying coverage for crowns and root canals to individuals with more than four pairs of teeth, an archaic policy not aligned with modern US dental practice. Coverage for those procedures will now be approved for Medicaid recipients when deemed medically necessary. New Yorkers became eligible for these additional dental procedures under Medicaid as of January 31, 2024.