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2024 Group Rating & Group Retro Enrollment

If your business isn’t enrolled in a savings program for the coming 2024-2025 BWC policy year, you’ll want to get the ball rolling ASAP!

Two of the most highly-favored programs are Group Experience Rating (usually called Group Rating, or just “Group), and Group Retrospective Rating (often referred to as Group Retro or Retro). They’re both great programs that can boast savings over 50% for some policyholders, and the difference between them is fairly simple.

Group Rating is like a coupon – you receive the discount upfront, and pay lower premiums throughout the year. The maximum discount is 53% off of BWC’s base rates, which only applies to policies with zero or very few losses in their experience period.
Group Retrospective is more like a mail-in rebate. You pay the sticker price to BWC for premiums, and are rebated following the end of that policy year based on how your pool performed. Refunds can total close to 50% under the most optimal conditions.

Something to keep in mind: TPAs can advertise any Group Retro refund up to and including 63%, even if their pools have never achieved that. A maximum refund is uncommon, and nearly unheard of over the last couple of years due to eroding refunds due to changes within BWC. Recent changes have us hopeful that the program will begin yielding better refunds, but even still - a 63% refund in Group Retro is only achieved if there were no losses within that group.

Spooner is accepting enrollments for Group Rating through November 10, 2023 and Group Retro through January 26, 2024. If you’re an existing Spooner Group Rating client, you can renew online here, or reach out to your client services rep. For businesses interested in seeing what Spooner has to offer, complete this form (no later than ten days before the enrollment deadline), and we’d be happy to talk with you about the short and long game of keeping premiums low.

Both Group Rating and Group Retro are valuable programs, and if a policy is eligible for both – your TPA should break down the estimated savings difference, in dollars. If neither of these programs appeal to you or solve your issue of high premiums or a high EMR, it may be a great time to look into self-insured options like a PEO. SuretyHR is a PEO that operates within the Spooner Risk Control family of companies, and we’d be happy to discuss those alternative options with you further.

Most Recent

Group Retro Lawsuit - We Won the Final Round!

Posted By Brandy King
April 03, 2026 Category: Ohio BWC, Group Retro, 2018 Group Retro, 2019 Group Retro, Group Retro Refunds Withheld

Ohio Supreme Court Decision Reinforces Workers’ Compensation Rules — Even During COVID Although the verdict came on April Fool's Day, the decision issued by Ohio's highest court was no joke: administrative agencies must follow their own rules — even during extraordinary circumstances. Spooner Incorporated is proud to have been the only Third-Party Administrator (TPA) in Ohio that supported our clients in this fight, advocating for fair and proper administration of the Group Retrospective (Retro) rating program. What Happened? The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) must still administer its group retrospective rating program for the 2018 policy year, even though those employers received dividends in 2020 equal to 100% of their 2018 premiums. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, BWC issued a one-time dividend to policyholders as financial relief from the impact COVID had on Ohio businesses. Following that, the agency declined to perform group retrospective calculations for the 2018 and 2019 policy years (or make associated payouts), arguing that the dividend effectively replaced any potential refunds. The team at Spooner disagreed, along with our valued client Kent Elastomer and trusted partners at Roetzel & Andress - and a six-year legal battle ensued. Read more about the background here. Why This Matters to Employers This ruling reinforces a critical legal

Rehashing the Complexities of Marijuana in the Workplace

Posted By Brandy King
February 02, 2026 Category: Medical Marijuana, Drugs In The Workplace, Marijuana Rescheduled, Marijuana Breathalyzer, Cannabix, Thc Breath Test

Toward the end of 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to expedite the rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. This is monumental in that it acknowledges that marijuana does, in fact, have valid clinical/medical uses and has low-to-moderate potential for abuse. Only four states in the U.S. still regard cannabis as being fully illegal, while another six allow only the cannabinoid CBD, which is known not to produce psychoactive effects. All other states have some version of legal or decriminalized marijuana, be it medical, recreational, or a combination of both. The first thing that’s important to note and is widely misunderstood is that this rescheduling does not legalize marijuana federally. As of January 28, 2026, Marijuana is still a Schedule I drug, since the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has not yet finalized this rule. Once they do cement this change, there could be some wide-sweeping changes to drug testing. The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) currently only allows testing for Scheduled I and II substances for federal and regulated drug-testing programs followed by DOT-regulated employees and other safety-sensitive positions. Truck drivers, pilots, transit operators, railroad employees, and pipeline workers are all currently subject to mandatory drug and alcohol testing, including marijuana. There has been talk of a

Unemployment Services with Spooner

Posted By Brandy King
February 02, 2026 Category: Ohio, Unemployment, Hr Outsourcing, Unemployment Claims, Fraud

If you haven’t considered trusting Spooner’s family of companies with managing your unemployment claims, maybe you’re not sure what it entails and how much time and hassle it could save. You may have also tried outsourcing this to another vendor in the past and found that their approach really didn’t save you much of anything. The team at Spooner Risk Control (which encompasses both Spooner Inc and SuretyHR) boasts over 15 years of experience managing unemployment claims, including an attorney that will represent your company at hearing. Many clients that are new to using our unemployment services have shared that past vendors still required them to log into their portal, submit all the responses and paperwork, then the vendor would send to the state. Our approach is to simply ask for the documentation, submit, and take care of everything. As an unemployment services client, you’d be asked to sign a third-party representation form that will allow any unemployment-related forms and letters to come directly to us so you’re not always the go-between. Here’s a run-down of the services you can expect as an Unemployment Services client: Monitor and report all new unemployment claims and notifications Submission of claims and responses after requesting information from the employer and submission of any rebuttals File and submit appeals on any base period unemployment notifications or allowed claims File appeals to the

Blog

2024 Group Rating & Group Retro Enrollment

Group Retro Lawsuit - We Won the Final Round!

Rehashing the Complexities of Marijuana in the Workplace

Unemployment Services with Spooner

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