Disability prevention and management is a proactive, employer-based approach to: (1) prevent the occurrence of injuries and disabilities; (2) intervene early for disability risk factors; and (3) coordinate services for a cost effective restoration and return to work.1 Thus, as used here, disability prevention and management includes the full range of strategies that an employer can use to reduce the direct cost and the production burden of occupational trauma and disease at the workplace. In U.S. practice, disability prevention and management techniques have been used as strategies for coping with high workers’ compensation insurance (or self-insurance) costs. Such strategies are now very common in the U.S., particularly among larger employers in industries with what are perceived to be excessive workers’ compensation costs. A survey of 1,050 large U.S. employers in 1993 indicated that 84 percent of them were actively attempting to control their workers’ compensation costs with various disability prevention and management techniques.2 The popularity of these strategies in the U.S. reflects a number of circumstances.
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