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A. CDHS shall not deny or dismiss a request for a hearing unless: 1. The request is not received within the time period specified in Section 4.802.1. 2. The request is withdrawn in writing by the household or its representative; or, 3. The household or its representative fails, without good cause, to appear at the scheduled hearing. B. The administrative adjudicator shall not enter a default against any party for failure to file a written answer to the notice of hearing but shall base the initial decision upon the evidence presented at the hearing. C. When the administrative adjudicator dismisses an appeal for reasons other than failure to appear, the decision of the administrative adjudicator shall be an initial decision, which shall not be implemented pending review by the Office of Appeals and entry of a final agency decision. D. When an appellant fails to appear at a duly scheduled hearing, having been given proper notice, and without having given timely advance notice to the administrative adjudicator of acceptable good cause for inability to appear at the hearing at the time, date and place specified in the notice of hearing, then the appeal shall be considered abandoned, and an order of dismissal shall be entered by the administrative adjudicator and served upon the parties by the Office of Appeals
(OOA). The order of dismissal for failure to appear shall not be implemented pending review by the OOA and entry of a final agency decision. The appellant, however, shall be afforded a period of ten (10) calendar days from the date the order of dismissal was mailed, during which the appellant may explain in a letter to the administrative adjudicator the reason for his or her failure to appear. If the administrative adjudicator, then finds that there was acceptable good cause for the appellant not appearing, the administrative adjudicator shall vacate the order dismissing the appeal and reschedule another hearing date. If the appellant does not submit a letter seeking to show good cause within a period of ten (10) calendar days, the order of dismissal shall be filed with the OOA. The OOA shall confirm the dismissal of the appeal by an agency decision, which shall be served upon the parties and the interested division of the State Department. Within three (3) working days after the effective date of the decision, the local office shall implement necessary actions to provide benefits in the correct amount, terminate benefits, recover benefits incorrectly paid, and/or other appropriate actions in accordance with the rules. If the appellant submits a letter seeking to show good cause and the administrative adjudicator finds that the stated facts do not constitute good cause, the administrative adjudicator shall enter an initial decision confirming the dismissal.