The doctor who performed Palm Beach County's first successful IVF pregnancy and delivery back in 1982 says the fertility clinic he founded pushed him out because of his age. Dr. Moshe Peress, now 76, has filed a lawsuit against Boca Fertility, Inc. in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, alleging the practice cut his hours, redirected his patients to younger physicians, and ultimately terminated him after he refused to retire.
According to BocaNewsNow.com, Peress served as Boca Fertility's medical director as of January 2023 and earned $500,000 a year before the alleged discrimination began. The complaint states that clinic owners told Peress in December 2024 that bringing in younger physicians would make the practice more attractive to prospective buyers. Peress did not agree to retire, per the complaint, and the situation escalated from there.
Court filings described by the same report allege that in 2024, Boca Fertility directed new business toward younger doctors, reserved Peress's own schedule mostly for returning patients, and instructed front office staff not to book new patients with him. The complaint further alleges that Peress needed sign-off from two younger, less experienced physicians before he could treat his own patients, and that the clinic falsely told other doctors he had retired, which the complaint says never happened.
Salary Cut, Then a Termination Notice
By the time the dispute reached its final stages, the complaint states Boca Fertility offered Peress a new contract that would have slashed his salary to $150,000 and cut his hours to about 15 a week. Peress received an October 2025 termination notice, and his employment ended in January 2026, according to the complaint outlined by the same report.
Peress's attorney, Peter Hoogerwoerd of Remer, Georges-Pierre & Hoogerwoerd, PLLC in Coral Gables, is representing him in the case. The lawsuit alleges violations of both the Florida Civil Rights Act and the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Peress is seeking reinstatement, back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, liquidated damages and attorney's fees, and the complaint frames his removal as a calculated move tied to the clinic's ownership structure rather than any decline in his performance.
Boca Fertility had not filed a response to the lawsuit as of the afternoon the BocaNewsNow.com report was published, on August 29. As with any civil filing, the allegations remain unproven, and a complaint is merely an accusation until a court or settlement resolves it.
A Four-Decade Career Beyond the Exam Room
Peress earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 1976 and completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at the Medical University of South Carolina in 1982, credentials that predate the founding of his Boca Raton practice that same year, according to IssueWire. The lawsuit's underlying facts, per BocaNewsNow.com, note that Peress is an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University and mentored medical students through December 2025, with those students giving him strong evaluation scores.
Peress's academic ties run deeper than a title. The Boca Raton Tribune reports he serves as a clinical assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and actively supports university medical education events like White Coats-4-Care, reflecting a standing in Boca Raton's medical community that extends well beyond the clinic now facing his lawsuit.
Private Equity Backing and the Push for Younger Doctors
The clinic's alleged motive traces back to a corporate transaction that predates the termination by years. New Orleans-based private equity firm LongueVue Capital announced in January 2023 that its platform, Fertility Specialists Network, had added Boca Fertility to its national clinic network as its flagship Florida practice, according to a release cited by PR Newswire. Months later, in June 2023, Boca Fertility expanded its clinical team by hiring two younger reproductive specialists, Dr. Leah Roberts and Dr. Cheri Margolis, according to Boca Fertility's own announcement — additions the lawsuit says coincided with the period when Peress's patient bookings and clinical duties began shrinking.
That corporate backdrop lines up with the complaint's central allegation: that owners wanted a younger roster of doctors to make the practice more attractive to buyers, and that Peress's refusal to retire triggered the reduction in his hours, pay, and patient load that followed.
What Florida Law Allows in the Case
Florida's civil rights statute caps punitive damages in employment discrimination cases at $100,000, though compensatory damages for harms like mental anguish carry no statutory ceiling, according to The Florida Senate. Workers in Florida also get more time than their federal counterparts to act: up to 365 days from an alleged discriminatory act to file with the Florida Commission on Human Relations, compared with 300 days under federal EEOC rules, per The Amlong Firm.
Peress's case also fits into a much larger demographic picture. Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges shows physicians aged 65 and older made up 20 percent of the active U.S. clinical workforce in 2024, with another 22 percent between 55 and 64 — meaning older doctors like Peress represent a sizable and growing share of the profession even as they face pressure to step aside. Age discrimination claims nationally account for roughly 15 to 20 percent of all workplace discrimination charges, averaging more than 15,000 a year, per the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Florida alone routinely generates between 6.6 and 8.5 percent of all federal age discrimination charges filed across the country, underscoring how frequently these disputes surface in the state's workplaces.
No hearing date or clinic response had been reported as of the most recent filing status, and it remains to be seen whether Boca Fertility will move to dismiss the case or file a formal answer in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
