The Tri City Herald’s editorial misses the mark on it’s defense of the casino game known as the “retro program”. This is a game where the employer, (or most likely one of the 40 or so organizations that use it to recruit members), pick a plan with risk factors to predict what their job injury claims will be that year. If they guess right they get a refund equivalent to the risk factor they chose. This is all done in the guise of making the work place safer.
In reality it is, at best, a recruiting tool for the 40 or so organizations that use it to attract new members. This is a Wall Street style “bonus” to these groups. Individual employers are at a huge disadvantage to play the same game.
The fact is when the L&I fund has a sizeable surplus it should be distributed to all employers in the form of lower rates, rather than the crap shooters like the BIAW. Just as rates go up for all when the fund has a bad year with claims.