Ohio: Injured worker system said broken

Ohio: Injured worker system said broken

	Published : Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:33 By : Agencies Print this Story

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The state's $21 billion system for handling claims from injured workers and setting the premiums their employers pay is 'pretty broken,' and it may take years of work before public trust is restored, the new director of Ohio's insurance fund for injured workers said Wednesday.

The premiums employers pay are unstable and some workers face inappropriately long waiting periods after filing claims, Marsha Ryan, administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Ryan said the side of the bureau that deals directly with workers did not receive the type of attention that fixed a scandal involving the bureau's billions of dollars in investments.

'We have a big job to do to overcome the criticism that I have heard of the bureau -- that lack of predictability, that lack of simplicity in the processes,' Ryan said.

Ryan said the bureau's past practice of awarding discounts to employers when the agency's investments were good did not allow for long-term planning to keep premiums stable.

With the help of the agency's new board of directors, she wants politics taken out of that rate-setting process, she said.

One of Ryan's first tasks is to review the agency's practice of providing group discounts to employers who belong to various alliances, such as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce or National Federation of Independent Business. She said three separate reviews have found the practice has contributed to the volatility of rates.

Adjusting rates to spread the burden more evenly among employers in and out of such groups is likely to bring the base premium rate down, she said, though group participants with the deepest discounts may see rates go up.

Business groups said they were open to talk about rate-setting but some disagreed that the system is broken.

'Injured workers are being taken care of and we are working to get them back to work as soon as possible,' said Ty Pine, legislative director for the National Federation of Independent Business-Ohio. 'Despite the problems the bureau has faced, we are still doing a reasonable job at that.'

Providing refunds to employers when investment returns are good is important in Ohio, whose public workers' comp system constitutes a monopoly, said Tony Fiore, director of labor issues for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

'Because it is a state system, it doesn't need to keep an exorbitant amount of money above what is adequately needed to cover every claim out there today and in the future,' Fiore said.

Ohio, which established its workers comp system in 1912, is one of only a handful of states with a government-run system. Other states operate workers' comp systems through private insurance companies.

The 2005 revelation of the agency's unorthodox $50 million investment in rare coins triggered a government corruption scandal that led to convictions of 16 people, including former Gov. Bob Taft's no contest plea to charges of ethics violations. The scandal helped end a dozen years of GOP power in the state.

Among Ryan's early acts was to hire the bureau's first ever actuary to professionally assess investment risks.

Also Wednesday, Ryan said:

--Making the system better for workers and employers matters more than whether Ohio has a public workers' comp system or one that is privately run.

--Internal controls and documentation have been weak for years and must be strengthened to restore credibility in the bureau's operations.

--Restoring that trust could take as long as three or four years.