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Rousmaniere: Ohio Safety Record 2012 – 2017

25 Jan, 2019 Peter Rousmaniere

                               

Sarasota, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) -The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) is the exclusive state fund of Ohio. It is therefore the sole insurer of insured employers, which probably account for about 70% of all work injuries in the state. A press release on 1/24/19 attributed a 20% rate reduction to better employer safety. However, BLS records for Ohio show a very mild reduction in both total injuries and the frequency of injuries from 2012 through 2017 where there was at least one day lost – averaging slightly over 2% per year:

 

2012

2017

reduction 

 

    

annual

count total (000s)

113.6

101.5

2.13%

count away (000s)

32.3

28.9

2.11%

 

    

 

incid total (per 100 FTE)

3.2

2.6

3.75%

incid away (per 100 FTE)

0.9

0.8

2.22%

away: away from work =>1 day

 

 

A much more plausible explanation for the 20% rate reduction is a major reduction in outstanding reserves.   A problem in understanding Ohio is that it keeps it financial books in the form of statutory government accounting, not in accordance with conventional insurance accounting. This makes is effectively impossible to understand without huge effort the financial condition of the BWC.

I encountered this problem while I was pursuing a story on the roughly $800 million court judgment against the BWC about five years ago for manipulation of the premiums of many insureds.

 

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    About The Author

    • Peter Rousmaniere

      Peter Rousmaniere is widely known throughout the workers’ compensation industry, both for his writing and consulting experience. Based in the picture perfect New England town of Woodstock, VT, he is a regular on the conference circuit, and is deeply in tune with trends and developments within the industry. His passion is writing and presenting on issues largely related to immigration, and he maintains a blog on the subject at www.workingimmigrants.com.

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