Employment Programs

This summary of demographic and economic statistics from 2007 on the non-institutionalized population with disabilities is meant for policy makers, advocates, reporters, and the public. Data include information on the population size and disability prevalence for various demographic subpopulations, as well as statistics related to employment, earnings, and household income. Comparisons are made to people without disabilities and across disability types.

In the U.S., workers that experience disability onset are unlikely to receive return-to-work supports unless their disability is work-related or they have private disability coverage. The Pathways to Work program in the UK offers a range of supports that focus on preventing loss of work. After 18 months of evaluation, the data shows that it substantially improves outcomes. This brief offers lessons for U.S. policymakers that may pursue this strategy in the future.

This brief, the eighth in a series on working with disability, looks at the employment outcomes of participants in CommonHealth Working (CHW), Massachusetts’s Medicaid Buy-In program. Differences in post-enrollment employment rates, monthly hours worked and earnings, and private health insurance coverage are compared between new CHW enrollees previously covered by MassHealth, Massachusetts’s Medicaid program, and those without prior MassHealth coverage.

Presentations from NASHP’s 21st annual state health policy conference are now available. The conference is planned by state health policymakers for state agencies' staff, legislators, and legislative staff. Review the presentations to learn how others are improving and innovating healthcare through state-level policy.

Watch employers attest to how their business’ needs are met by skills that workers with developmental disabilities have brought to the workplace. The five firms included in the video found that those skills are crucial as they convert to computerized record systems in order to increase efficiency and drive down record keeping costs.

Working Well, the Texas Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment, tests whether health and employment-related services can prevent workers with serious health issues from becoming disabled and dependent on federal benefits. These Issue Briefs introduce the program and present participant data. Brief 3 examines healthcare support workers participating in the project who are at risk for becoming disabled themselves. The website has participant stories and further project information.

The Medicaid Buy-In (MBI), Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs all provide workers with disabilities options to maintain health coverage if they earn too much for Medicaid or Medicare benefits. The first issue brief explains how these programs compare and interact in terms of eligibility, coverage, populations, and enrollment. The second examines how MBI participants that collect SSDI utilize SSDI work incentives.

Answering the question posed in the title is one key to evaluating Medicaid Buy-In (MBI) programs. This issue brief, the fifth in a series on workers with disabilities, compares demographics, health status, and expenditures between these groups. Significant areas of difference that were identified are race, gender, diagnoses, and expenditures.

The DMIE awards funds to states to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions that are intended to improve health care coverage and employment services for working adults with potentially disabling conditions. It allows states to offer Medicaid-equivalent coverage, employment support, and case management services in order to sustain employment. This issue brief reviews the rationale for the DMIE, the interventions of the four most recent states, evaluation, and information dissemination.

Medicaid waivers funds can be used to support self-employment, but may not be used directly to fund the development of a business. This factsheet provides answers to questions about how to leverage waivers supports for self-employment while complying with these regulations. It also outlines eligibility requirements and presents short case studies.