This section applies to counties, municipalities, political subdivisions, and tribal governments with five thousand or more employees. This section also applies to employee organizations representing state civil service employees and the Washington health benefit exchange, regardless of the number of employees. Group applications for participation in public employees benefits board (PEBB) insurance coverage provided through the PEBB program are approved or denied by the health care authority (HCA) based upon the information and documents submitted by the group and the employer group evaluation (EGE) criteria described in this rule.

(1) Groups are evaluated as a single unit. To support this requirement the group must provide a census file, as described in WAC 182-08-235 (2)(d), and additional information as described in WAC 182-08-235 (2)(g) for all employees eligible to participate under the group's current health plan. If the group's application is for both employees and retirees, the census file data and additional information for retired employees participating under the group's current health plan must also be included.

(a) If the group's application is only for participation of its employees, the PEBB enrollment data used to evaluate the group will be state agency employee data.

(b) If a group's application is for participation of both its employees and retirees, the PEBB enrollment data used to evaluate the group will include data from the PEBB nonmedicare risk pool limited to state retiree enrollment data and state agency employee data.

(2) A group must pass the EGE criteria or the actuarial evaluation required in subsection (3) of this section as a single unit before the application can be approved. For purposes of this section a single unit includes all employees eligible under the group's current health plan. If the application is only for a bargaining unit, then the bargaining unit must be evaluated using the EGE criteria in addition to all eligible employees of the group as a single unit. If the group passes the EGE criteria as a single unit, but an individual bargaining unit does not, the group may only participate if all eligible employees of the entity participate.

(3) The authority will use the following criteria to evaluate the group.

(a) The member level census file demographic data must indicate a relative underwriting factor that is equal to or better than the relative underwriting factor as determined by the authority for the like population within the nonmedicare PEBB risk pool as described in subsection (1) of this section;

(b) One of the following two conditions must be met:

(i) The frequency of large claims must be less than or equal to the PEBB historical benchmark frequency for the PEBB like population within the nonmedicare population as described in subsection (1) of this section;

(ii) The ongoing large claims management report must demonstrate that the frequency of ongoing large claims is less than or equal to the recurring benchmark frequency for the PEBB like population within the nonmedicare population as described in subsection (1) of this section.

(d) Provide a summary of benefits and certificate of coverage;

(e) Provide a summary of historical plan costs; and

(f) The evaluation of criteria in (c), (d), and (e) of this subsection must indicate that the historical cost of benefits for the group is equal to or less than the historical cost of the PEBB like population within the nonmedicare population as described in subsection (1) of this section for a comparable plan design.

(4) An approved group application is valid for three hundred sixty-five calendar days after the date the application is approved by the authority. If a group applies to add additional bargaining units after the three hundred sixty-five calendar day period has ended, the group must be reevaluated.

(5) An entity whose group application is denied may appeal the authority's decision to the PEBB appeals unit through the process described in WAC 182-16-2060.

(6) An entity whose group application is approved may purchase insurance for its employees under the participation requirements described in WAC 182-08-245.

PDFWAC 182-08-240

How will the health care authority (HCA) decide to approve or deny a group application?