When employees are injured on the job, workers' compensation is there to help ensure that these individuals receive the medical treatment they deserve. Typically, this means that an employee can receive medical treatment for their workplace injury and workers' compensation will cover the costs of their procedure. Additionally, individuals may be entitled to receive compensation for lost wages and, in some cases, even permanent disability payments.
However, these are not the only checks the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation will be sending out: according to a recent announcement, they are now finished mailing nearly 210,000 rebate checks to employers. They have recently sought media attention to help publicize the mailing of the checks, which could help employers know that the checks are legitimate. The last time rebate checks were mailed, in 1999, many of these checks were not cashed, perhaps because of fears that the checks were scams.
Businesses are set to receive approximately $887 million in rebates, with the amounts for each business dependent on the type of work they do and the number of people they employ. A similar system is used to determine how much money each business owes in workers' compensation payments as well. Schools and government agencies will receive approximately $113 million in rebates.
The rebate checks are made possible by the over performance of the Bureau's investments, which has left the organization with more money than it is allowed to keep. According to the agencies guidelines, they were allowed to keep a financial safety net which ensures they can make payments, but gains made on the investments exceed that amount by nearly $8 billion.
Source: news.cincinnati.com, "Ohio Workers' Comp: Checks are in the mail," Dan Horn, July 6, 2013