The Promise of State Initiatives to Prevent Long Term Work Disability

Every year, millions of Americans suffer from medical conditions that affect their ability to work. This puts them at risk of losing their jobs or being forced to rely on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). States could help many of these workers stay in their jobs, but promising options for doing this remain largely untested. The five states with state-mandated short-term disability benefits— California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island—are promising settings for such tests.

On February 23, from 12:00–1:30 p.m. (ET) Mathematica’s Center for Studying Disability Policy (CSDP) hosted a live webinar. A panel of experts from Mathematica, Sedgwick, and the state of California discussed the promise of state-based systems from the perspectives of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Reporting on studies of state disability insurance (SDI) and workers’ compensation (WC) systems in California and Rhode Island, our speakers presented new evidence on:

• The risk of SSDI entry for SDI and WC claimants
• The extent to which initial data on the characteristics of SDI or WC claimants can be used to predict their risk of entering SSDI
• The availability and utilization of return-to-work supports in state SDI and WC systems
• How states, including those without SDI, could help workers keep their jobs, maintain their economic independence, and save billions of taxpayer dollars

Our panel of experts included:

• David Mann, Mathematica
• Yonatan Ben-Shalom, Mathematica
• David Stapleton, Mathematica
• Teresa Bartlett, Sedgwick
• Jennifer Richard, California Assembly Labor and Employment Committee