“Let’s streamline the process and stop making our elderly jump through hoops for a service they were already approved for, rely on and deserve,” Malliotakis said. 

Access-A-Ride is a paratransit service operated by MTA New York City Transit in which eligible clients who cannot navigate buses and subways can reserve rides in advance to travel to their destinations.

Malliotakis said that both she and Lanza (R-C-Staten Island) have had to file appeals with the MTA on behalf of constituents who were denied recertification and that many of the clients who were turned down have physical conditions which have deteriorated since the time they first started using Access-A-Ride. 

Malliotakis first suggested changing the recertification process last year after holding forums in both the Bay Ridge and Staten Island ends of her district and hearing senior citizens speak out on the issue.

The MTA does offer a “Continual Eligibility” status for riders with chronic conditions that will not improve over time. Under the Continual Eligibility program, riders are required only to complete a re-application form once every five years.

But Malliotakis said that Continual Eligibility is determined at an initial in-person assessment and that if the client did not obtain the designation at the initial assessment, then he or she is required to go through an in-person assessment every five years.

The legislation sponsored by Malliotakis and Lanza would effectively place all Access-A-Ride clients in the Continual Eligibility category once they reach the age of 80.

In addition to saving senior citizens time and money, Malliotakis and Lanza said that their proposed legislation would also cut bureaucracy and costs.

“The current recertification policy has unfairly impacted the elderly who often have trouble navigating the process and scheduling appointments. Our senior citizens are being put through hoops, forced to go through the appeals process, visit doctors and assessment centers multiple times, often to be denied and have to go through a cumbersome appeals process,” Malliotakis said.

“We have to make it easier for our seniors to make it to and from appointments at Access-A-Ride offices and not harder. This bill offers a common sense approach to cut through red tape and deliver a better quality of life for those senior citizens who rely on Access-A-Ride,” Lanza said.

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