BOARDMAN, Ohio  -- The CEO and administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, Steve Buehrer did not arrive at Mr. Anthony’s Friday in a sleigh drawn by eight reindeer nor was he attired in a red suit with white fur trim.

Nonetheless, because he brought a check for $42.974 million for businesses and local governments in Mahoning and Trumbull County, Buehrer was treated like Santa Claus. The president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, Tom Humphries, was on hand to have his picture taken with Buehrer and the oversized “symbolic check.”

In an election year, Christmas comes in October.

The chief of the BWC came here to celebrate the Kasich administration’s “Another Billion Back” effort, a rebate of 56% of the premiums 250,000 employers throughout the Buckeye State pay the state BWC.

As Buehrer noted, this was the second year in a row that the bureau could return a substantial portion of the premiums paid.

The BWC began mailing this year’s checks last week, Buehrer said in his remarks, and they will continue to be mailed into early next month.

The return was made possible, the CEO/administrator told the Mahoning Valley Safety Council at its monthly luncheon, because the return on BWC investments was 13.4%, not the projected 4%; an economy that continues to improve; and employees filing fewer claims, which suggests workplace safety has improved considerably.

In 2003, Ohio employers filed 200,000 claims, Buehrer said. Last year that figure was 97,000.

The improved financial management at the BWC allowed the agency to triple its safety grants to employers to $15 million this year from $5 million last year, Buehrer said.

Based on the success in reducing accidents and lost-time injuries, his goal is for the BWC board of directors to commit $35 million to safety grants.

Moreover, the Ohio General Assembly has cut $80 million from the BWC budget over the last three years.

The BWC is running more efficiently with regards not to just financial management, Buehrer said, but how promptly it receives and processes claims. When he became administrator in 2011, he said, his goal was to provide “better care, quicker care.”

When an employer files a claim, “94% of the time, we get them back to work within 45 days,” Buehrer reported. But, “80% of that 94% never miss a day of work. So 10,000 to 15,000 come into the system and linger.”

To reduce the number of workdays missed, the BWC wants to increase funding for three programs employers can avail themselves of:

Workplace wellness, to help employees to avoid of deal with or diabetes and obesity.

More safety research grants to both four-year colleges and community colleges, to help workers, especially those in the building trades, learn even greater safety. Some $1.5 million has gone to higher education researchers this year.

Funding for safety training within the state fire marshal’s office. Firefighters, especially volunteer firefighters, have never had money for their training, Buehrer noted. He would provide $1 million for small fire departments across the state.

As Buehrer has announced before, and he reiterated Friday, funding the BWC will begin on a prospective basis in fiscal 2015. During its history, the BWC has been funded retrospectively, that is, employers paid their premiums after enjoying the insurance the BWC provided.

That means no huge rebates a year hence. Instead the premiums paid this year will cover the coverage employers have enjoyed and, assuming another year of “strong financial performance, they will received a credit, not a rebate,” Buehrer explained. As with other types of insurance premiums, they pay in advance for their coverage.

Pictured: Steve Buehrer presents a ceremonial check to Tom Humphries in the amount of rebates companies in the Youngstown area will receive from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Comp.

Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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