While New York continues to ramp up its vaccine distribution, it’s critical that we ensure rural New Yorkers are not left behind. As the elected representative of many rural communities, I know that transportation can pose a significant barrier to many of us and a long drive to a mass vaccination site can be difficult or even impossible. Many of us know of, or have even helped out a neighbor, friend, or relative or who cannot commit to a long drive to get essentials, such as travel-restricted seniors and people with disabilities. If our state wants to reach the needed threshold for herd immunity and ensure equal access to vaccines, we need to start looking for ways to reach rural residents.

One way to do this is to allow rural ambulance services to administer vaccines. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have issued guidelines for reimbursement rates for ambulances that perform vaccine administrations. But becoming a vaccine administrator can be a complicated process, and ambulance services in our rural areas already struggle with limited staffing and resources. This is why I have written a letter to the state Department of Health urging the department to develop guidelines to help our rural ambulance services register as COVID-19 vaccine administrators.

During the ongoing pandemic, EMS services across the country have been nimble enough to adopt new practices and expanded roles to safeguard the health and safety of their communities. Other states have already moved forward with plans to add ambulance services into their vaccination strategies and it’s time for New York to put a plan into motion as well.