Implementation of standardized time limits in sickness insurance and return-to-work: Experiences of four actors

Abstract

Purpose: In 2008, time limits were introduced in Swedish sickness insurance, comprising a pre-defined schedule for return-to-work. The purpose of this study was to explore experienced consequences of these time limits. Sick-listed persons, physicians, insurance officials and employers were interviewed regarding the process of sick-listing, rehabilitation and return-to-work in relation to the reform. Method: The study comprises qualitative interviews with 11 sick-listed persons, 4 insurance officials, 5 employers and 4 physicians (n = 24). Results: Physicians, employers, and sick-listed persons described insurance officials as increasingly passive, and that responsibility for the process was placed on the sick-listed. Several ethical dilemmas were identified, where officials were forced to act against their ethical principles. Insurance officials’ principle of care often clashed with the standardization of the process, that is based on principles of egalitarianism and equal treatment. Conclusions: The cases reported in this study suggest that a policy for activation and early return-to-work in some cases has had the opposite effect: central actors remain passive and the responsibility is placed on the sick-listed, who lacks the strength and knowledge to understand and navigate through the system. The standardized insurance system here promoted experiences of procedural injustice, for both officials and sick-listed persons.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Ethical dilemmas may arise in implementing egalitarian policies, since they sometimes clash with insurance officials’ principles of care.

• A policy for activation and early return-to-work has in the reported cases led to more passive rehabilitation actors.

• Sick-listed persons experienced that they were given much responsibility, although lacking strength and knowledge to fulfil it.

Keywords::

• Work disability
• return-to-work
• ethics
• Sweden

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Ida Seing and Karin Nordström for their assistance in gathering the material for this study.

Declaration of Interest: The study was funded by the County Council of Östergötland, Sweden.