ACRE Sues Metro Transportation Authority Over Insurance Cancellations During Alleged Disability Claim Delays

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Two individual plaintiffs and the Association of Commuter Rail Employees (ACRE) are behind a proposed class action lawsuit filed in New York against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that seeks to prevent insurance coverage cancellations during allegedly lengthy delays ACRE members experience after submitting disability claims through the MTA. The 22-page complaint states ACRE members—conductors, engineers, rail traffic controllers and other operating craft employees—and their families are left “uninsured and financially devastated” once MTA-provided insurance coverage lapses while the defendant and its medical board mull over final disability claim determinations, a process the case says often takes years. The lawsuit goes on to allege the defendant, the largest public transit authority in the country, makes matters worse with its practice of ignoring or refusing requests to extend insurance coverage while the MTA and its medical board go over disability applications.

The complaint asks the court for an injunction requiring the MTA to extend insurance coverage for proposed class members who have submitted timely disability claims and their families before an ACRE member’s disability claim has been resolved. Moreover, the lawsuit demands an overhaul of the MTA’s medical board tasked with reviewing disability claims, requiring the board contain three physicians, including one who’s “either the employee’s physician or is selected by the employee’s bargaining representative,” instead of two.

Each plaintiff claims more than two years have passed since they submitted their respective disability claims, with their applications still under review by the MTA and its medical board.