The RETAIN Demonstration: A Case Study of Medical Providers Experiences in Ohio
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Associated Project
Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness Network (RETAIN) Evaluation
Prepared for:
Social Security Administration
Key Findings
- Most medical providers who responded to the provider survey were female, White, and non-Hispanic. They differed from treatment enrollees in that providers were more likely to be male and non-Hispanic White, and less likely to have a work-limiting condition. Nearly half of providers were nurse practitioners or physician assistants, not physicians.
- Medical providers had a high level of engagement in Ohio RETAIN. All responding providers were aware of the program, and most (90.6 percent) had worked with a return-to-work coordinator.
- Physicians found support from return-to-work coordinators to be more helpful than nonphysicians did, one-fifth of whom said the support had no effect on the ease of doing their job. Even so, 82.4 percent of providers said that return-to-work coordinators made their jobs easier by reducing the burden of completing paperwork and coordination to help their patients return to work and by supporting their patients directly, especially with nonmedical barriers to work.
The Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness Network (RETAIN) demonstration, a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Social Security Administration, aims to help workers with recently acquired injuries and illnesses remain in the labor force. Following a pilot phase, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded cooperative agreements to state agencies in Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, and Vermont to fully implement RETAIN services. These five RETAIN programs worked to identify and recruit workers at risk of exiting the labor force and applying for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. For Mathematica’s evaluation of RETAIN, funded by the Social Security Administration, each program randomly assigned enrollees to a treatment group (those eligible to receive services through RETAIN) or a control group (those ineligible for RETAIN services).
In this brief, we describe the experiences of medical providers in Ohio RETAIN, including their characteristics, use of occupational health best practices, experiences working with return-to-work (RTW) coordinators, and barriers to participating in the program. We focus on Ohio RETAIN because it was run by a single health system with direct access to providers, a relationship that facilitated the program model.
Most Ohio RETAIN medical providers said they completed RETAIN training on occupational health best practices; about half of those providers found the training helpful, and a quarter said their interactions with patients changed as a result. Nearly all providers frequently used one or more of the occupational health best practices featured in the training.
Nearly all medical providers had worked with an RTW coordinator. Among them, physicians found support from RTW coordinators to be more helpful than nonphysician medical providers did. Those who saw benefits said that RTW coordinators reduced the administrative burden associated with helping their patients return to work and supported their patients directly, especially in addressing nonmedical barriers to work. Despite these benefits, providers said that employers’ and patients’ attitudes remained ongoing challenges to helping patients with illness and injuries stay at work or return to work. Overall, providers expressed widespread support for replicating or expanding RETAIN but noted the importance of minimizing the burden to providers.
More like this from Mathematica
Featured Publication
The RETAIN Demonstration: Comparing RETAIN Enrollees with Other Populations
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