What are the concerns of claimants who underwent a disability assessment? – A case study

Abstract

Little is known on how claimants experience disability assessments. While a variety of patient satisfaction instruments reflect the quality of medical care, no such tool exists for the assessment of work disability. In disability assessment, fairness is a central component of the claimants’ satisfaction with the assessment. We therefore developed a questionnaire that measures to what degree claimants experience the disability assessment as fair. Beyond the 26 items related to fairness, we asked the claimants to comment on additional aspects that affect their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the assessment. Ninety-four of 305 participants provided feedback, 38 (40.4%) of which were satisfied, 52 (55.3%) were dissatisfied with the assessment, and 4 (4.3%) both or neither. Approving comments addressed in particular the empathy of the expert (13/94, 13.8%), while critical comments complained about poor time management (13/94, 13.8%) and interviewing skills of the experts (12.8%, 12/94). While all expressed satisfaction on varying degrees on the global 7- point scale, claimants expressing approval in their comments versus those with critical feedback were more satisfied (6.3 vs. 4.8) and perceived a higher level of fairness with the assessment (6.5 vs. 4.8, p<0.01, each).