Notice reveals shortfall in benefits

The problem cam to light during a transfer in claim evaluations.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A mistake attributed to poor record keeping at the state insurance fund for injured workers shorted hundreds of workers nearly $14 million in benefits before the agency fixed the problem, the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation said Tuesday.
The problem, identified in August 2002, affected 1,644 permanently disabled workers who should have received more in state benefits when they hit retirement age.
To identify those workers, the agency sifted through 30,000 claims dating back to the 1960s, bureau spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said. They found $13.7 million in unpaid benefits for which the agency then reimbursed the workers. The bureau pays about $2 billion in claims annually. The error was discovered as the state shifted claims for those workers from a manual process overseen by the Industrial Commission to a computerized tracking system maintained by the workers' comp system, Smeltzer said.
The source of the mistake wasn't clear Tuesday. The Industrial Commission, which handles appeals of workers challenging their claims, said it believed it correctly awarded the benefits when it oversaw the system. The transfer of the system to the workers' comp bureau happened during 1999 and 2000, said Tim Adams, Industrial Commission executive director.
"I feel pretty confident they were being processed when they were over here," Adams said Tuesday.
Smeltzer said bureau officials learned of the error as they were transferring the claims to the computer system.
Revelation
The problem was fixed by 2003, but the error came to light this week in a memo released by Gov. Bob Taft. Taft released the document at the request of The Associated Press three days after the Ohio Supreme Court narrowed the governor's right to shield certain internal reports.
State Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat running for attorney general, sued for the memos to learn more about problems at the workers' comp bureau. The agency is still recovering from a scandal that revealed an unorthodox $50 million investment in rare coins and a $215 million hedge fund loss.
The scandal led to Taft's historic no-contest plea last year on charges he failed to report several golf outings and has given Democrats hope of breaking a Republican lock on state political offices.
The memo detailing the error, by former Taft aide Doug Moormann, was one of dozens of weekly reports to the governor from his top business aides. At Dann's request, Taft released many of the records last year but had resisted disclosing information that didn't relate directly to the bureau.
The Moormann memo detailing the error was among those released to Dann last year, Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said Tuesday. A message was left with Dann seeking comment.
The memo said that Social Security benefits meant to kick in and replace other federal disability benefits once a worker retired were not immediately paid because of "poor record keeping." A powerful cross-checking system now ensures those payments are accurate, Smeltzer said.