If you own a business in the state of Ohio, you may have recently received a letter from the Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) telling you that it is time to file your True-Up.
If you are unfamiliar, the true-up is required for all private employers that have a BWC policy.
We work closely with an organization called Compensation Solutions, and they are a Managed Care Organization (MCO). If you file a workers compensation claim, the MCO you work with will help you manage your claim, ensure your injured workers receive the proper medical care, and help you get people safely back to work.
We asked our colleague, Brett Pizzuto, from Compensation Solutions a couple questions about about the True-Up, and here is what he had to say:
What is the True-Up?
“The true-up is required for all private employers that have a BWC policy. Employers pay premiums throughout the year based on estimated gross wages and at the end of the Bureau’s fiscal year employers are required to report their actual gross wages. This allows the Bureau to determine if they’ve over-collected or under-collected. If the actual wages are higher than the estimated wages then the employer or their representative is responsible for paying whatever that difference is by the deadline”
Why do Businesses have issues with the True-Up?
“Most think their payroll company is handling everything and with The Doyle Group this is the case. However, most payroll companies only report the gross wages when the true-up opens and don’t pay any balances that might be due. Employers who owe BWC because their gross wages were higher than the estimated gross wages sometimes don’t realize that a balance is due and that they are responsible for paying that balance.”
The True-Up causes some problems for business owners every year. This is something that most people don’t have in the front of their minds and forget about it until they receive the letter. Every business in Ohio who has a policy with BWC will receive this letter whether they are up to date or not. Many people also assume that this is handled by the company that handles their payroll.
Most of the time, the estimate is correct. There are a few things that may impact the accuracy of your estimate when you initially opened the policy. If you added employees, lost employees, or had to file additional workers compensation claims, you will likely need to update the information and pay the difference.
With that said, If you are working with a payroll provider, you may want to check in and see if they are handling this for you. Many payroll providers do not handle this for their clients and that can lead to some headaches down the road.
However, if we are handling your payroll, you don’t have to worry about this. We make sure the information is up to date and submit the proper reports on time to keep your business running smoothly. We build the cost of the BWC policy into your payroll costs.
Here at Doyle, we do our best to ease our clients minds and make sure these things are handled for them. We want to make sure you can spend 100% of your time focusing on running your company and not spending energy on things that won’t increase your bottom line.