The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) has approved a reduction in private employer insurance premiums of 12% to be effective July 1, 2018. During its deliberations, the BWC determined that the reduction would save Ohio businesses as much as $163.5 million. Further, BWC cited a number of factors that played into the reduction, chief among them the fact that 2017 claims totaled 86,000, the lowest number filed in the past 20 years. In addition, the agency pointed to safer workplaces, a changing workplace and slower growth in medical inflation as significant additional factors.