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•Accelerated Benefits
Demonstration •Cash and Counseling •Children with Special Health Care Needs •Community Partnerships for Older Adults •Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment (DMIE) •Helping TANF Recipients with Disabilities Find and Keep Jobs •Home- and Community- Based Medicaid Waiver Program •Medicaid Buy-In Program •Mental Health Parity: California •Mental Health Parity: Vermont •Money Follows the Person •Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) •Social HMOs •State Partnership Initiative on Employment •Ticket to Work •Youth Transition Demonstration
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What Is the Center for Studying Disability Policy?
The Center for Studying Disability Policy was established in 2007 by Mathematica to inform disability policy formation with rigorous, objective research and data collected from the people disability policy aims to serve, supplies the nation's policymakers with the information they need to navigate the transition to 21st-century disability policy. For over two decades, Mathematica has conducted many significant disability studies, including some of the first rigorous evaluations of employment supports for people with severe disabilities and the largest surveys of people with disabilities. More than 30 staff continues this pioneering work today through a wide range of innovative disability research and data collection. Read more.
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New Book Focuses on Counting Working-Age People with Disabilities
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Policy Forums Shed Light on Disability Research Findings
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This report uses National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data linked to data from the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Medicare programs to create profiles of SSDI beneficiaries during the three years before and after SSDI entry to illustrate changes in insurance status, health care access, and utilization. SSDI beneficiaries are less likely to be insured, even three years prior to SSDI entry, and utilization and access problems peak right before and after entry.
Report
Working-age people with disabilities are often overlooked in discussions of the latest statistics on employment, income, poverty, and other measures. This book reviews what current data on this population can and cannot tell us, as well as how data quality can be improved to better inform policy.
Book
The latest report from Mathematica’s Ticket to Work program evaluation presents results from the National Beneficiary Survey, administered each year from 2004 through 2006.
* Report
This report from Mathematica’s Ticket to Work program evaluation looks at the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) program, a grant initiative established by the Social Security Administration (SSA) in 2006.
* Report
With better access to health care and employment supports, individuals with physical and mental impairments can stay employed, maintain health, and avoid becoming dependent on federal disability benefits. To help American workers with potentially disabling conditions achieve these goals, Congress authorized the Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment (DMIE) under the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999.
Report
Allowance programs are a conceptually appealing way to help people with disabilities and their families pay for goods and services that such individuals often need. This report examines how the international literature on the extra costs of disability could contribute to an assessment of the United Kingdom’s Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) programs.
* Report
The current mix of public and private programs to support workers after they experience disability onset provides benefits to millions of workers and former workers. According to an article in the Journal of Disability Policy Studies, despite the large and growing costs of these programs, the inflation-adjusted household incomes of workers with disabilities have been falling for more than two decades, both absolutely and, especially, relative to the incomes of those without disabilities. The aging of the baby boom generation is likely to make matters worse, and the government's fiscal circumstance will make sustaining existing public programs increasingly difficult. Current policy initiatives might eventually improve the disability support system, but they are not likely to ward off adverse consequences of the pending crisis. Policy changes that leverage existing private-sector practices and capabilities might achieve greater success but have received little attention and are far from proven.
Journal Article (subscription required)
There is a growing divergence between demands placed on the system for assisting people with disabilities and the data required to manage this system. A new brief seeks to stimulate discussion about the value of establishing a national disability data system to make better use of existing data and add new data.
*Issue Brief
The transition to adulthood can be difficult for young people with disabilities, and changes in public policy are needed to give them the support they need to find meaningful work, stay employed, and reduce their dependency on federal and state disability benefits. This brief highlights the importance of improving transition policy for youth with disabilities, reviews lessons from recent research, and considers transformative policy changes and why and how such changes might be tested.
* Issue Brief
Older workers whose employment prospects are cut short can claim reduced Social Security benefits beginning at age 62, the earliest eligibility age. This option provides a floor of protection for workers who are forced by circumstances to retire early, but it also provides benefits to people who may not have a pressing need and might be better off waiting. A leading proposal to extend working years involves increasing the earliest eligibility age for Social Security, but this proposal might inflict hardship on some older workers. The author presents a framework for a new program that could address the harm that increasing the earliest eligibility age might inflict on some older workers.
In Brief (PDF)
In Brief (HTML)
Full Report
The Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration aims to help Medicaid enrollees transition from long-term care institutions to the community. This report from the field, the first in a new series, assesses the scope of the program.
*Report from the Field #1
Although Medicare coverage is available to people with disabilities, they must wait for that coverage until 24 months after they become eligible for SSDI. A recent brief discusses the costs and benefits associated with eliminating the Medicare waiting period for new SSDI beneficiaries. The authors estimate that doing so would increase annual Medicare costs by approximately $14 billion, provided that all beneficiaries are enrolled throughout the 24-month period.
* Issue Brief
A new brief profiles the U.K.’s Pathways to Work program, which offers employment support and services to applicants for Incapacity Benefits (IB), the country’s largest disability program. Its key elements are a series of compulsory work-focused interviews, as well as a range of optional services and financial supports known as the Choices Package.
* Issue Brief
The inaugural brief in a new series from the Center for Studying Disability Policy highlights the extent to which SSI and SSDI beneficiaries are working or trying to return to work. It also examines their interest in increasing their earnings and self-sufficiency, as well as the challenges they face.
* Issue Brief
The sixth policy brief in a Mathematica series on working with disability looks at the Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment, which allows states to provide Medicaid-equivalent or "wrap-around" coverage to supplement existing health insurance for workers with potentially disabling conditions.
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Working-age people with disabilities are often overlooked in discussions of the latest statistics on employment, income, poverty, and other measures. A 
A bimonthly lunchtime seminar series provides decision makers and others with an opportunity to hear about the latest disability policy research findings and discuss implications for policy. Proposed topics for the upcoming season, which begins in September, include Money Follows the Person, Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment, longitudinal perspective on employment and service use of SSI/DI beneficiaries, and early results from the Youth Transition Demonstration.