What’s On The Table For Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work Strategies?

The implementation of stay-at-work (SAW) and return-to-work (RTW) strategies in the real world complicates the use of disability claims data to understand their effectiveness. Organizing claims by duration as a proxy for severity can provide insights into what employers stand to gain from effective SAW and RTW programs. This report looks at what effect SAW and RTW programs may have on reducing work lost time form disability leaves. In terms of reducing short-term disability (STD) lost work time, RTW strategies that shorten the most serious 10% of claims by 10% would have a greater impact than avoiding the bottom 10% of claims entirely.