Update on Films Not Needing Ohio BWC Coverage

Most employers in Ohio make the Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) one of their first stops when setting up their business to set up their BWC insurance coverage in case an employee was to get injured on the job as it is required by the state of Ohio to obtain coverage for a business with one or more employees. Once set up, the employer pays premiums for the coverage based on the estimated amount of payroll reported times a specific rate. Then once a year there is a true-up period where actual payroll numbers are calculated, and an additional premium may be owed (or a refund may occur). As we have recently discovered through the annual true-up process, the state of Ohio cannot guarantee BWC coverage for 1099 employees. Therefore, there is no need for films to personally have BWC coverage through the state of Ohio. This greatly affects those in the movie industry as smaller productions with fewer staff tend to set up people as 1099 contractors, versus actual employees. For any films using 1099-only personnel who already set up BWC coverage, we recommend cancelling the BWC coverage. If a film company is paying wages through a payroll house (W-2 wages), the payroll house would then assume the BWC coverage and take care of the fees and true-up themselves. It is important for film owners to be careful because trying to file a claim without BWC coverage can result in fines, so we do suggest that movie owners ask their insurance policy provider to add a rider to their policy if one does not already exist or if the coverage is not built into their existing policy in order to assist with coverage.