For Ohio business owners, the passage of House Bill 52—the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) budget—in the Ohio House in early March was a welcome step toward reform. Workers’ compensation is a significant portion of the cost of doing business, which can be an impediment to job growth and retention, but HB52 proposes a BWC budget with a 4 percent decrease from last year, saving Ohio employers more than $23 million.
Tracie Sanchez, president/owner of Lima Pallet Company and board member for the BWC, says the budget will streamline business, minimize costs for nonprofits and employers and ensure benefits for Ohio workers injured on the job.
Sanchez says BWC is also making strides on three key reform concerns from Ohio employers:
Interstate jurisdiction.
BWC is currently working on a program to address the issue of workers’ compensation coverage for Ohio employees who work out of state. Sanchez says this program would alleviate the financial and regulatory burden for businesses and allow them to focus on growing, rather than cutting through government red tape to operate legally in other states.
Stable rates.
“BWC has cut rates for private employers for the past four years, including a recently approved 10.8 percent reduction for next year that brings the overall rates 21.4 percent lower than they were at the beginning of 2011,” Sanchez says. “This is due to better than expected returns on investments and better than expected medical and lost time claims due to ‘Return to Work’ initiatives. Ohio’s base rate index in a 2014 national study of $1.74 per $100 of payroll is below the national median of $1.85.”
Prospective billing.
The move to prospective billing is happening this year, aligning BWC with standard insurance practices of paying ahead. “The change will allow BWC to offer employers more flexible payment options and is expected to reduce system costs, result in fewer incidents of fraud and bring a 2 percent base rate reduction for employers,” Sanchez says.
