An official State of Texas website.
Revision 11-4; Effective June 1, 2011
The hearings officer makes the final administrative decision in all appeals not covered under Chapter 31 (TANF), Chapter 32 (Medicaid) or Chapter 33 (Nutrition Assistance Programs) in the Human Resources Code. An appellant or his representative may file a request for a procedural review. Examples of programs eligible for procedural review include Disaster Assistance, Refugee Cash Assistance and In-Home Family Support Services.
When an appellant or appellant's representative does not agree with a hearings officer's decision, he may request a procedural review of the decision within 30 days of the date on the decision. The request must be in writing and postmarked no later than the 30th day. A request for procedural review will be considered timely if filed after 30 days when the appellant demonstrates good cause for the filing delay.
A procedural review is a review of the hearing record by an HHSC Regional Legal Services attorney. The attorney reviews all documentation submitted, listens to the recorded hearing and reviews the hearings officer's decision. A procedural review does not change the outcome of the hearing.
The request for a review is sent to the hearings administrator at:
Hearings Administrator
Mail Code W-613
P.O. Box 149030
Austin, TX 78714
Exception: The 30 days does not begin until a new decision is issued if the appellant or appellant's representative is working with the hearings officer to reopen or reschedule the hearing.
2310 Receipt of the Procedural Review Request
Revision 11-4; Effective June 1, 2011
Procedural Review requests may be received by fax, mail or e-mail from appellants.
Upon receipt of the request, the hearings administrator’s assistant:
- enters the request into the tracking system,
- creates a tracking sheet with pertinent information, and
- scans the request and e-mails it to the hearings area manager and the Regional Legal Services, which assigns an attorney.
The hearings area manager scans the hearing record and posts it to the public folder notifying the assigned attorney via e-mail when it is posted and the file name. The assigned attorney must receive the hearing record within 10 days from the date of the request.
The attorney will access the hearings record from the public folder and the AVAYA recording from the AVAYA folder.
The hearings administrator sends an acknowledgement letter to the appellant.
2320 Completing the Procedural Review
Revision 11-4; Effective June 1, 2011
2321 Attorney’s Responsibilities
Revision 11-4; Effective June 1, 2011
Within 15 days of receipt of the hearing record, the regional attorney will review the applicable law, facts and regulations contained in the record developed by the hearings officer.
The regional attorney e-mails the review results to the hearings administrator and hearings manager.
2322 Hearings Administrator's Responsibilities
Revision 11-4; Effective June 1, 2011
The hearings manager reviews the attorney's opinion and takes appropriate action. A letter to the appellant is developed by the hearings manager explaining the results of the review and any actions that may be taken. The letter is signed by the hearings administrator.