Disability management in the corporate workplace

Disability management is a way to reduce the impact of disability on productivity. As the elderly population of the United States continues to grow and workers put off their retirement, the prevalence of chronic diseases in the work place continues to increase. It is essential that various disability management measures are in place to reduce the Days Away From Work (DAFW) and the total cost incurred by a company. In order to quantify these fluctuations in the labor force, two models are run, one with DAFW as the dependent variable and another with total cost per disability claims as the dependent variable. The explanatory variables are business type, injury type, benefit type, age, age squared, presence of case manager, location of injury, as well as interactions between these variables. This model departs from previous studies as it includes claim level data. The data comes from General Electric (GE) for the years 1995‐2008. Additional data from EMPAQ (Employer Measures of Productivity, Absence and Quality) helps assess GE’s current situation in light of other companies’ disability management initiatives. Looking at industry benchmarks, GE continues to prevail as an industry leader. The presence of a case manager significantly impacts cost per claim. In addition, claims located in the northeast were significant and on average increased the days away from work per claim. These findings could help GE and possibly other businesses in the industry to proactively manage disability claims