Washington Apple Health proposed ABA rulemaking 2026 is still at the preproposal inquiry stage in the official sources reviewed August 24. WSR 26-09-041, filed April 9, identifies possible amendments on center-of-excellence documentation, functional assessment, treatment plans, service delivery, prior authorization, and recertification. It contains no proposed rule text or effective date, so current Washington rules and payer instructions remain operative until a later filing is adopted.

Editorial approval scope: The team checked current source fidelity, scope boundaries, dates, arithmetic, reader usefulness, practical workflow, and general-information limitations.

Label the filing correctly

A CR-101 preproposal begins inquiry and invites participation; it is not a CR-102 proposed text, permanent adoption, or emergency rule. Record filing number, date, affected WAC sections, purpose, contacts, status, next filing, comments, and recheck date. Do not train staff on imagined requirements or represent possible changes as a final Apple Health policy.

Keep current rules in production

Continue to use current WAC 182-531A-0600 for functional assessment and treatment-plan development and WAC 182-531A-1100 for authorization and recertification. Preserve the version used for each request. A preproposal does not extend an authorization, change a form, add a document, or alter the required center-of-excellence route.

Prepare a controlled comparison

Create rows for COE evaluation and prescription, assessment, treatment plan, direct delivery, provider role, setting, authorization, recertification, continuity, notice, appeal, and documentation. Populate current authority now. Leave future-text and effective-date fields blank and disabled. When HCA publishes a CR-102, compare exact additions and deletions rather than editing from the purpose statement.

Use official monitoring routes

Monitor the HCA rulemaking page, State Register, Apple Health ABA page, billing guides, and managed-care notices. Save each retrieved version and publication state. A webinar slide, vendor summary, or early stakeholder draft can inform questions but should not configure a live requirement unless HCA identifies it as operative authority.

A fictional Washington status audit

Noah locks 22 possible rule domains. Fifteen have a current WAC citation, responsible workflow, proposed-status label, monitoring owner, disabled future control, and test plan. Status completeness is 15 of 22, or 68.2%. Three treat the CR-101 purpose as text, two lack current-rule citations, one changes a recertification form early, and one has no managed-care recheck.

Protect active authorizations

Do not ask members to repeat evaluations, obtain new documents, or change services based on this filing. Qualified clinicians continue to assess current need and the responsible payer applies current authorization rules. If future text creates a transition, classify existing and new requests by the actual adopted trigger. Keep notice, appeal, continued-benefit, and continuity routes available throughout implementation.

Washington rulemaking checklist

Verify WSR 26-09-041 and CR-101 status, affected WAC 182-531A-0500, -0600, -0700 and -1100, later CR-102 or adoption search, current WAC and billing guides, member and product, COE documentation, assessment and plan, provider and setting, authorization and recertification, MCO direction, notice and appeal, current production rule, disabled future control, transition plan, stakeholder input, counsel review, and source recheck.

Related resources

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