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The report provides descriptive statistics and associations between case characteristics (injury, claim, and claimant characteristics) and the outcomes of interest (return-to-work and disability management duration). Process diagrams and survival models complement the descriptive statistics. This report also assesses the similarities and differences in return-to-work rates and duration in disability management across case characteristics and timing and sequence of disability management services. Patterns among the data identify associations between the length of time workers remain in disability management and the return-to-work outcome at various levels of recovery of an injured worker.

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Research Questions

• Which characteristics of disability claims and claimants are more strongly associated with return-to-work outcomes?
• Which Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) actions (claims examiner adjudication, second opinion examinations, nurse interventions, and vocational rehab) are more strongly associated with return-to-work outcomes (both early and late interventions)? Specifically, using the Disability Management intervention codes, which interventions and intervention patterns are associated with return-to-work outcomes?
• Which pre-claim characteristics (claimant and incident) are more strongly associated with prolonged disability periods?
• Is the current bifurcated case management threshold (i.e., 30 months) highly correlated with workers returning to work or are alternative cut-offs (e.g., 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, or other) more closely correlated with a return to work?

Key Takeaways

• After 12 months in disability management, 76% of injured workers returned to work. Overall, 82% of injured workers returned to work at some point during the disability management program. (This study only considers the return-to-work outcome, and does not include other disability management resolutions that could be considered successful due to reduction in benefits paid).
• The study included an additional analysis of the most favorable disability management outcome (an injured worker who returned to work and had a short stay in disability management) and found that injury characteristics and time between adjudication and disability management had the strongest associations with a favorable outcome (up to 14% and 5%, respectively). There was also an association between disability management services and injured workers returning to work at full capacity. Nurse services consistently preceded many of these successful return-to-work instances.
• A common theme in both the descriptive statistics and statistical analyses is that injured workers returned to full capacity (or close to) within the first 12 months of the disability management program. Injured workers with injuries resulting from occupational illness took longer to return to work. After 18 months, most injured workers either had returned to work or were unlikely to return in any capacity. Very few workers (less than 1%) returned to work between 24 and 30 months. These patterns suggest that changing the start of Periodic Roll Management from 30 to 24 months could achieve similar outcomes of return-to-work for injured workers.

Citation

Urdapilleta, O., Moore, B., McAllister, J., Hempel, C. (2018). Summit Consulting. Return-to-Work Outcomes for Federal Employees in the Office of Workers’ Compensation Disability Management Program. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.