Error shorted Ohio workers $13.7M

[deadparrot]

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A mistake blamed on poor record-keeping at the state insurance fund for injured workers shorted hundreds of workers nearly $14 million in benefits before the agency fixed the problem, the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation said Tuesday.

The problem, identified in August 2002, affected 1,644 permanently disabled workers who should have received more in state benefits when they hit retirement age.

To identify those workers, the agency sifted through 30,000 claims dating to the 1960s, bureau spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said. They found $13.7 million in unpaid benefits for which the agency then reimbursed the workers. The bureau pays about $2 billion in claims annually.

The error was discovered as the state shifted claims for those workers from a manual process overseen by the Industrial Commission to a computerized process maintained by the workers' comp system, Smeltzer said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060726/ap_on_re_us/botched_benefits

[mod mom]

1. Ah the OH BWC, who proudly gave us Tom Noe and his money laundering

Coin deal.

[BR_Parkway]

7. Wasn't his funny money BS around $14 million too? Seems like I

remember that and when I first read the article, I thought what a remarkable co-incidence it all was.

[OhioChick]

2. Hmmmmm.......

Imagine that.....Ohioans getting screwed again.

[OzarkDem]

3. Tom Noe got it

When Strickland wins, I hope we host a rally in the state capitol complete with torches and pitchforks, tar and feathers.

[gratuitous]

4. A Republican was in charge?

Oh well, no problem then. It was an honest mistake. Coulda happened to anyone. No harm, no foul. Let bygones be bygones.

[hughee99]

6. So they pay out 2 billion a year in benefits

and over the last 40+ years has only underpaid a combined total of 13.7 million dollars? Which means that their underpayments average about 350k per year. Do I understand this correctly?

Is it just me or does it seem like this error rate of far less than 1% is actually pretty good for a government agency?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

5. Wanna bet they fired the person who started the investigation?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[rucky]

8. That's the same fund that coingate pilfered from.

funny how those "errors" never work in the workers' favor.

[Javaman]

9. Ummm, yeeeeahhhh, shorted...

riiiight. And I have a bridge to sell you.