Ohio proposes $1.5B in workers’-comp rebates

The state’s employers are in line to collect what would be the biggest rebate of workers’-compensation premiums in 20 years.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation proposed on Tuesday giving $1.5 billion in premium rebates to employers covered by the bureau. If the bureau’s board approves next month, employers can expect to receive their rebate check this summer.

The proposed rebate is the latest in a string of rebates and reductions in premiums totaling $8 billion since 2011.

“We’ve had healthy income and returns on our investment portfolio, and it’s only right to share that success with our private and public employers,” said Sarah Morrison, the bureau’s administrator and CEO, in a statement. She made the announcement about the rebates with Gov. John Kasich at Land-Grant Brewing Co. in Franklinton.

The proposed rebate equals 85 percent of the premiums paid for the policy year that ended June 30, 2017, for private employers and for the 2016 calendar year for public employers.

It would follow $1 billion in rebates issued in 2013, 2014 and 2017, along with a $15 million rebate in 2016 for counties, cities and other public employers.

To show the full extent of the rebates and rate reductions over the past several years, the bureau used as an example a school

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