(1) During the application review period of October 1st through October 15th, the following review process will apply.

(a) Applications that are ineligible or incomplete will be returned to the applicant and will not be considered for scoring. The applicant is solely responsible for ensuring that their application is complete to avoid the possibility of denial.

(b) Complete and eligible applications will undergo a full review and will be scored using the weighted scoring method posted on the department's website.

(2) Applications received during the potential review period of November 15th through September 1st will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis and will not undergo scoring.

(3) The department may request additional clarifying information or verify information presented in the application and may consider information outside of the submitted application during the review and scoring process.

(4) The department will use the following criteria to score and prioritize applications:

(a) Geographic location;

(b) Facility type;

(c) Specialty type;

(d) Percentage of medicaid and other low-income patients served; and

(e) HPSA designation score.

(5) The department will publish a publicly available scoring rubric each year identifying how the criteria outlined in subsection (4) of this section will be weighted.

(6) In the event the department identifies a further need for specific physician services consistent with the intent of this chapter, the department may identify additional criteria or factors by which to score applications.

(7) In the event the department identifies any additional criteria, this criteria will be made publicly available prior to the applicable application review period.

(8) Sponsorships will be provided to applicants according to score.

(9) If applications receive the same score for the last available waiver slot, the applications will be reevaluated based on the scoring criteria described in subsection (4) of this section. If they still receive the same score, priority will be given in the following order:

(a) Highest percentage of medicaid and other low-income patients served;

(b) Highest HPSA designation score; and

(c) Physicians that trained or completed their residency or fellowship training in Washington state.

(10) If, after the reevaluation in subsection (9) of this section, there are applications that have equal scores for the last available waiver, the secretary of health, or the secretary's designee, will select the final applicant(s).