Disability Risk Management and Postinjury Employment of Workers With Back Pain

We analyze the outcomes of occupational back pain among four large employers that use one or more of the following disability management practices: aggressive return to work, claims management, medical management, or time-limited job accommodations. Outcomes measured at 6 and 12 months postonset include: duration of initial work absence and the probability of returning to stable employment. Employment outcomes are better in firms with more proactive return-to-work policies than in firms with more restrictive policies. We devise a statistical test for attrition bias and conclude that sample attrition does not significantly alter our results.