Workers’ Comp on the go

By STEVE BUEHRER

Special to The Vindictor

We’re a few days into 2014, and it’s already shaping up to be a busy one at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. We will continue focusing as we did in 2013 on the goals Gov. John Kasich set when he asked me to lead the agency three years ago: to work with our stakeholders and better serve employers and injured workers. Over the past three years, I’ve travelled the state meeting with nearly 175 different employer, labor and industry groups, including several in Northeast Ohio. Discussions like these have strengthened our partnership with stakeholders and made great strides in making our workers’ compensation system an asset to Ohio.

A defining moment of last year was Gov. Kasich’s Billion Back program, which issued $1 billion in rebates to nearly 200,000 public and private employers over the summer. These rebates, made possible by prudent fiscal management and investment strategies, ranged from $5 all the way up to several million dollars for employers across the state. The rebates put more than $46 million into the pockets of both private and public employers in Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull Counties. I enjoyed the opportunity to visit Youngstown in July and personally deliver the city’s rebate of nearly $600,000 to Mayor Sammarone. We’re pleased the rebates allowed the city, along with public and private employers across the state, to make investments in the future success of their operations in Ohio.

The rebates provided a significant boost to Ohio’s economy, but they are just one part of the Billion Back plan. I’ve been fortunate to tour the facilities of companies that are putting employee safety first - including Columbiana County’s Haltec Corporation. The company is one of only 28 in Ohio that has attained Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) status through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We appreciate the collaboration of our Safety Council partners to keep the importance of workplace safety at the forefront in Northeast Ohio. The annual Northeast Ohio Safety Conference and Expo was held in Salem last year and aims to help make workplaces safer by preventing accidents as well as educate employers about the benefits of BWC discount programs.

We want to keep this momentum going, so we tripled the amount of workplace safety grants available to employers from $5 million to $15 million, increased the BWC match and lifted the lifetime cap on awards. It’s one way we’re partnering with employers to keep all Ohioans safe on the job.

Billing system

The final piece of the plan includes modernizing our billing system to provide more flexibility for employers at a reduced cost. This change aligns BWC with standard industry practice of collecting premiums before extending coverage. As we move from billing in arrears to billing in advance in 2015, BWC will issue businesses an estimated $1 billion in credits to cover the cost of transitioning.

The Billion Back plan was just one highlight of a busy 2013, and an eventful 2014 waits. We’ll institute a new policy and claims management computer system, prepare for our new billing process, transition to the new ICD-10 medical coding requirements, more aggressively promote safety and improve medical delivery. These are all major initiatives that will positively impact employers, injured workers and providers.

We’re working hard to rise to meet the challenges that await us in this New Year, and will continue to do so to make Ohio’s workers’ comp system the best it can be.

Steve Buehrer is the administrator/chief executive officer of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.