Economic Perspectives on Return to Work Interventions

Organizations regularly face challenging resource allocation decisions in their effort to get the most out of the resources they have available for their operations. At a broader, societal level, consideration of the resource implications of alternatives is equally as critical, since not all possibilities can be supported. This is as true in the realm of occupational health and safety and return to work as it is for other areas of decision-making. In this chapter, we focus on economic considerations—both methods and evidence—related to disability management interventions and return to work. We describe the extent of the burden of work disability and then turn to economic evaluations of interventions to reduce the burden. We present an overview of methods and issues in the economic evaluation of return to work interventions, focusing on disability management with workplace involvement, and summarize evidence on the financial merits of such interventions. We end with a discussion and summary of the role of economics in intervention evaluation and investment decision-making, with a focus on disability management and return to work.