How employers can reduce the cost of their disability programs

The rapid rate at which disability costs are rising is fueling the need to cut costs. This article details some strategies that employers can utilize to help keep disability costs under control. The authors discuss many difficult issues that need to be addressed to make productive changes to the existing status quo, which needs to be assessed for current strengths and weaknesses before changes can be made. Case studies are presented and many alternative plan designs are discussed that could involve varying cost savings depending upon the individual plan characteristics.