Workforce Reintegration After Work-Related Permanent Impairment: A Look at the First Year After Workers’ Compensation Claim Closure

Estimating time to reinjury among Washington State injured workers by degree of permanent impairment: Using state wage data to adjust for time at risk

“…62 Such differential inclusion in wage files may have affected our reinjury estimates for permanent impairment and age subgroups, to an unknown degree. Finally, all covariates were also based on administrative data, and thus have measurement limitations (e.g., the WBI variable was essentially a lower bound estimate, 22 and the Functional Comorbidity Index was almost certainly underestimated, because diagnoses unrelated to the WC injury may not be reported to WC for billing purposes 50 ).…”

“…A more detailed description of how WBI was constructed and classified can be found in an earlier publication. 22 To explore program-related outcomes for injured workers participating in vocational rehabilitation, we estimated reinjury risk for two subsets of injured workers: 1…”

“…[16][17][18][19][20][21] In an earlier study, we found that at least 22% of Washington State injured workers had not returned to work, even briefly, during the year after their WC claim closed with a PPD award. 22 Injured workers with permanent impairments account for a large share of WC-based vocational rehabilitation program participants, and accumulating evidence suggests that vocational rehabilitation programs and policies affect initial return to work and sustained employment in both positive and negative ways. 19,[23][24][25] Even after vocational retraining to facilitate returning to work, workers disabled by an occupational injury face substantial employment challenges.…”

“…39 Second, in a Washington State WC-based study, more than half of workers surveyed thought their permanent impairment put them at higher risk of being reinjured at work. 22 Third, in a reinjury study using data from the Ontario Survey of Permanently Disabled Workers, about 50% of the 7915 surveyed injured workers had at least one additional work absence related to the first injury. 11 Although this estimate was not tied to a specific timeframe and did not include new work injuries, it was markedly higher than the reinjury estimates that were not specific to workers with permanent impairment (noted earlier).…”

Initial return to work and long‐term employment patterns: Associations with work‐related permanent impairment and with participation in workers' compensation‐based return‐to‐work programs

“…Workers' compensation (WC)‐based PPD awards provide compensation for work‐related permanent impairments that do not preclude return to work (RTW) but do prevent working at full physical capacity (e.g., vision or hearing loss, amputation, spinal impairment). Work‐related permanent impairment is associated with long‐term functional disability, pain, and unstable health, all of which may interfere with timely and sustained RTW 2‐8 . Compared to other workers, disabled workers have 50% higher unemployment rates, and they are more likely to work part‐time and in entry‐level jobs 9,10 .…”