In Ohio you buy workers comp from the state, not from a carrier.

No. Ohio is monopolistic — cover comes from the state, and the only alternative is qualifying to self-insure. We do not place workers compensation or employers liability here. What we do place is everything else the business needs, and we will tell you that up front rather than after a submission.

One or more employees. Every Ohio employer must either buy state fund cover or be granted self-insured status. (Ohio Rev. Code §§ 4123.01 and 4123.35).

Because workers comp is priced off a state loss-cost filing, not a national rate. Most states take those filings from NCCI; California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Delaware and Indiana each run their own rating bureau. Same payroll, same class code, different starting number.

Every state maintains a residual market — an assigned risk plan or a state fund — that must take risks the voluntary market will not. The submissions are long and most brokers avoid them, which is why declined accounts often hear nothing rather than hearing no. We place them.

No. A mod is a three-year rolling calculation that drops the oldest year as it adds the newest, so a bad year ages out. What changes the trajectory is what happens between now and then — claim handling, return-to-work, and whether the reserves on open claims are still realistic. We have taken accounts out of the residual market this way.

Usually yes, in the sense that you will pay for them. If a sub cannot produce their own certificate at audit, most states let the carrier charge you as though they were your employee — which is why an uninsured sub is often the single largest line on an audit bill.

Workers comp premium is an estimate based on projected payroll, trued up after the policy year. If payroll ran higher than projected, or uninsured subs appeared, or employees were classified into cheaper codes than the work they actually did, the difference arrives as an audit bill.