(1) An eligibility, premium surcharges, or enrollment decision made by a school employees benefits board (SEBB) organization may be appealed by submitting a written request for administrative review to the SEBB organization. The SEBB organization must receive the request for administrative review no later than thirty days after the date of the denial notice. The contents of the request for administrative review are to be provided as described in WAC 182-32-2070.

(a) Upon receiving the request for administrative review, the SEBB organization must perform a complete review of the denial by one or more staff who did not take part in the decision resulting in the denial.

(b) The SEBB organization must render a written decision within thirty days of receiving the written request for administrative review. The written decision must be sent to the school employee or school employee's dependent who submitted the request for administrative review and must include a description of the appeal rights. The SEBB organization must also send a copy of the SEBB organization's written decision to the SEBB organization's administrator (or designee) and to the SEBB appeals unit. If the SEBB organization fails to render a written decision within thirty days of receiving the written request for administrative review, the request for administrative review may be considered denied as of the thirty-first day and the original underlying SEBB organization decision may be appealed to the SEBB appeals unit by following the process in this section.

(c) The SEBB organization may reverse eligibility, premium surcharges, or enrollment decisions as permitted by WAC 182-30-060.

(2) Any current or former school employee or school employee's dependent who disagrees with the SEBB organization's decision in response to a written request for administrative review, as described in subsection (1) of this section, may request a brief adjudicative proceeding to be conducted by the authority by submitting a written request to the SEBB appeals unit.

(a) The SEBB appeals unit must receive the request for a brief adjudicative proceeding no later than thirty days after the date of the SEBB organization's written decision on the request for administrative review. If the SEBB organization fails to render a written decision within thirty days of receiving a written request for administrative review, the SEBB appeals unit must receive the request for a brief adjudicative proceeding no later than thirty days after the date the request for administrative review was deemed denied. The contents of the request for a brief adjudicative proceeding are to be provided as described in WAC 182-32-2070.

(i) The SEBB appeals unit must notify the appellant in writing when the request for a brief adjudicative proceeding has been received.

(ii) Once the SEBB appeals unit receives a request for a brief adjudicative proceeding, the SEBB appeals unit will send a request for documentation and information to the applicable SEBB organization. The SEBB organization will then have two business days to respond to the request and provide the requested documentation and information. The SEBB organization will also send a copy of the documentation and information to the appellant.

(iii) The brief adjudicative proceeding will be conducted by a presiding officer designated by the director.

(b) If a school employee fails to timely request a brief adjudicative proceeding, the SEBB organization's prior written decision becomes the authority's final order without further action.