Workplace disabilities are on the rise

May 16th, 2007 by Julie Ferguson

Unhealthy worker lifestyles and an aging work force may portend trouble on the horizon for the nation’s employers. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal points to the disturbing trend of long-term worker disabilities that are accelerating at a rapid pace. This comes at a time when employers may be facing labor shortages with the impending retirement of the large boomer population.
The WSJ article uses data from The 2006 CDA Long-Term Disability Claims Review (PDF), an annual study issued by the Council for Disability Awareness. Some of the salient points from the study:

  • More than 500,000 individuals received long-term disability insurance payments from CDA member companies in 2006 – 4.4% more than 2005.
    CDA member companies paid in excess of $7.2 billion in long-term disability insurance claims in 2006, a 7.5% increase over benefits paid in 2005.

  • 33% of individuals receiving long-term disability insurance benefits did not qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance, and 95% of reported disabilities were not work-related.
  • 6.8 million disabled workers received payments through SSDI in 2006, 4.4% more than in 2005 and 51% more than the 4.5 million disabled workers receiving payments in 1997.
  • The rate of disability for women workers is growing faster than that of their male counterparts. Since 1997 the number of women covered under SSDI has grown from 16% to 47% of covered workers compared to a 9.9% growth rate for men, while the rate of disability for women workers has grown more than 60% compared to 32% for male.

For the last two decades, there have been numerous attempts to cobble the various disability programs together and serve them under one roof: 24-hour coverage, disability management, and absence management, to name a few. Often, for all but the largest self-insured employers, these attempts have been less than successful due to complex state-by-state regulatory environments, in-house management silos that administer programs differently (risk management vs human resources), and differences in program incentives, disincentives, and benefit structures. One area where workers comp has made huge progress and serves as a model for non-work related disability programs is in the area of return-to-work programs. For many, migrating RTW to disability has been slow going – often because it is a voluntary employee financed benefit, so the urgency hasn’t always been there. But with the converging forces of aging workers, a less healthy population (increased obesity, diabetes), and a tight labor pool, the sense of urgency may be growing.
The WSJ article discusses the ways that many large employers are making workplace accommodations to retain workers:

“American Express says it has altered the company cafeteria at its Greensboro, N.C., call center to accommodate wheelchair-bound workers, enabling them to access microwaves and bus their trays on carts. Company employees who rely on public transportation because of medical reasons, such as paratransit transportation, can get flexible work schedules to accommodate their needs.
At General Motors Corp., a joint program with the United Auto Workers union helps disabled workers find new positions within the company that are more amenable to a worker’s ailment. Under this so-called Adapt program, disabled workers meet with company doctors, ergonomic representatives and others who review the employee’s disability and try to match that to available jobs. Workers who install windshields, for instance, but who develop problems that restrict how high they can raise their arm, could be moved to door installation instead, since that job doesn’t require workers lift their arms above their shoulders, GM says.”

These types of creative programs are always easier for the big guys to effect than the smaller employers, given the law of large numbers, but the large employers can also serve as laboratories for what works well and what doesn’t. And the climate may be right for moving the needle a little further in terms of a unified approach to disability management and stay at work/return to work programs.

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