The risk management division of Prince William County, Va., oversees two self-insurance pools that have returned more than $15 million in dividends or surplus to participants since 2001.

One pool covers workers compensation risks, while the second pool provides coverage for other liabilities.

The dividends result from successful claims mitigation efforts and have been reinvested to pay for innovative loss control measures.

The premium credits also have been applied to offset premium payments that county government departments would otherwise have to contribute toward for their insurance costs, said Lori J. Gray, Prince William County's risk management division chief.

“That has been huge, because we haven't had to go to the Board of County Supervisors and ask for more money,” particularly during challenging budget times, Ms. Gray said.

The dividends come from the Prince William Self-Insurance Group, which is a separate entity from the county government but is managed by the county's risk management division, and Ms. Gray chairs the group's seven-member board.

Two entities now participate in the PWSIG, including Prince William County's government and the Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center, which houses about 900 inmates daily.

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PWSIG consists of the Workers' Compensation Association pool, which covers losses from workplace injuries; and the Prince William Self-Insurance Group Casualty Pool, which covers general liability, environmental liability, professional liability and auto losses.

“We are the only municipality in the state of Virginia that runs two insurance pools,” Ms. Gray said.

Public-sector insurance pools typically cover the combined risks of several governmental entities, said William F. Becker, national practice leader for the public sector in Washington for Aon P.L.C., which places the county's insurance.

But the Prince William County pool arrangement is unusual because it mostly insures the risks of departments within Prince William County's government.

“This is a county that runs their (insurance) program like a pool,” Mr. Becker said.

PWSIG was established in 1989 and is regulated by the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

Its workers comp pool retains the first $1 million per claim with excess insurance purchased from Ace Ltd. Prince William County's government paid roughly $3.6 million of premiums into the pool for 2013, Ms. Gray said.

The liability pool, meanwhile, retains $750,000 per claim and buys excess insurance from Stamford, Conn.-based Genesis Insurance Co. The county paid $1.3 million in premiums into the pool for 2013, Ms. Gray said.

Prior to Ms. Gray being hired in 1999 as the county government's risk manager, PWSIG disbursed just one dividend. Pool participants used that money for general expenses not tied to insurance or loss control, Ms. Gray said.

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But for PWSIG to remain financially viable and for her risk management division to become a success, Ms. Gray said she believed claims needed to be controlled and she needed to demonstrate the value of risk management.

So in 2002, she convinced county government leaders to dedicate the county government's share of a PWSIG dividend for loss control measures.

Meanwhile, Ms. Gray had spent the first two years in her risk management role meeting with county government department directors, asking about the risks that kept them up at night and how she could help.

“Most of them felt security at work was their biggest risk,” Ms. Gray said. Years earlier, the Prince William County Police Department had conducted a study of county building security, but its recommendations had not been implemented. So Ms. Gray worked with the police and an advisory group, composed of people representing most county agencies, to implement some of the security measures suggested in the police report.

A $1.3 million dividend disbursement from the PWSIG paid for building improvements such as installing a barrier between a probation department receptionist and visitors to the department.

That helped county departments view Ms. Gray's risk management division as a unit that cared about their safety, she said.

“The improvements were not big-ticket items,” Ms. Gray said. “But that is how everybody started to like risk management, because we were able to help them.”

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The most recent dividend, for 2012, will be used to offset premiums over the next three to five years.

For PWSIG coverage, Prince William County government departments each pay premium amounts based on the frequency and severity of claims each department generates. That way, there is a direct correlation to the costs each department generates so they take notice of their losses.

Other factors also determine premium contributions. A department's payroll size, for example, helps determine workers comp premium amounts.

The dividends PWSIG generates essentially result from surplus produced because the pools have been operated so well over the years, Aon's Mr. Becker said. Spending that surplus on new loss mitigation measures means the improvements continue producing new savings.

“The program gets tighter and tighter, and they save more money that they keep reinvesting.” Mr. Becker said.

The creative loss control initiatives the dividends have funded include driving simulators for training police and fire personnel, an employee health and wellness program, and a program for diagnosing and treating public safety employees exposed to infectious diseases.