This section applies to employee organizations representing school employees regardless of the number of school employees. Group applications for participation in school employees benefits board (SEBB) insurance coverage provided through the SEBB 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 182-30-200 (2)(d), and additional information as described in WAC  182-30-200 (2)(g) for all school employees eligible to participate under the group's current health plan. If the group's application is for both school 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 school employees, the SEBB enrollment data used to evaluate the group will be SEBB organization school employee data.

(b) If a group's application is for participation of both its school employees and retirees, the SEBB enrollment data used to evaluate the group will include data from the public employees benefits board (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 school 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 school 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 SEBB and 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 SEBB historical benchmark frequency for the SEBB like population within the SEBB and nonmedicare PEBB 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 SEBB like population within the SEBB and nonmedicare PEBB population as described in subsection (1) of this section.

(c) Provide an executive summary of benefits;

(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 365 calendar days after the date the application is approved by the authority. If a group applies to add additional bargaining units after the 365 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 SEBB appeals unit through the process described in WAC  182-32-2060.

(6) An entity whose group application is approved may purchase insurance for its employees under the participation requirements described in WAC  182-30-215.