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Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study

BACKGROUND: In 2010, the Swedish government introduced a system of subsidies for occupational health (OH) service interventions, as a part in a general policy promoting early return to work. The aim of this study was to analyse the implementation of these subsidies, regarding how they were used and...

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Autores principales: Ståhl, Christian, Toomingas, Allan, Åborg, Carl, Ekberg, Kerstin, Kjellberg, Katarina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3648453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23566064
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-310
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author Ståhl, Christian
Toomingas, Allan
Åborg, Carl
Ekberg, Kerstin
Kjellberg, Katarina
author_facet Ståhl, Christian
Toomingas, Allan
Åborg, Carl
Ekberg, Kerstin
Kjellberg, Katarina
author_sort Ståhl, Christian
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In 2010, the Swedish government introduced a system of subsidies for occupational health (OH) service interventions, as a part in a general policy promoting early return to work. The aim of this study was to analyse the implementation of these subsidies, regarding how they were used and perceived. METHODS: The study was carried out using a mixed-methods approach, and comprises material from six sub-studies: a register study of the use of the subsidies, one survey to OH service providers, one survey to employers, one document analysis of the documentation from interventions, interviews with stakeholders, and case interviews with actors involved in coordinated interventions. RESULTS: The subsidized services were generally perceived as positive but were modestly used. The most extensive subsidy – for coordinated interventions – was rarely used. Employers and OH service providers reported few or no effects on services and contracts. OH service providers explained the modest use in terms of already having less bureaucratic routines in place, where applying for subsidies would involve additional costs. Information about the subsidies was primarily communicated to OH service providers, while employers were not informed. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the complexity of promoting interventions through financial incentives, since their implementation requires that they are perceived by the stakeholders involved as purposeful, manageable and cost-effective. There are inherent political challenges in influencing stakeholders who act on a free market, in that the impact of policies may be limited, unless they are enforced by law.
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spelling pubmed-36484532013-05-09 Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study Ståhl, Christian Toomingas, Allan Åborg, Carl Ekberg, Kerstin Kjellberg, Katarina BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: In 2010, the Swedish government introduced a system of subsidies for occupational health (OH) service interventions, as a part in a general policy promoting early return to work. The aim of this study was to analyse the implementation of these subsidies, regarding how they were used and perceived. METHODS: The study was carried out using a mixed-methods approach, and comprises material from six sub-studies: a register study of the use of the subsidies, one survey to OH service providers, one survey to employers, one document analysis of the documentation from interventions, interviews with stakeholders, and case interviews with actors involved in coordinated interventions. RESULTS: The subsidized services were generally perceived as positive but were modestly used. The most extensive subsidy – for coordinated interventions – was rarely used. Employers and OH service providers reported few or no effects on services and contracts. OH service providers explained the modest use in terms of already having less bureaucratic routines in place, where applying for subsidies would involve additional costs. Information about the subsidies was primarily communicated to OH service providers, while employers were not informed. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the complexity of promoting interventions through financial incentives, since their implementation requires that they are perceived by the stakeholders involved as purposeful, manageable and cost-effective. There are inherent political challenges in influencing stakeholders who act on a free market, in that the impact of policies may be limited, unless they are enforced by law. BioMed Central 2013-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC3648453/ /pubmed/23566064 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-310 Text en Copyright © 2013 Ståhl et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ståhl, Christian
Toomingas, Allan
Åborg, Carl
Ekberg, Kerstin
Kjellberg, Katarina
Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study
title Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study
title_full Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study
title_fullStr Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study
title_full_unstemmed Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study
title_short Promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a Swedish case study
title_sort promoting occupational health interventions in early return to work by implementing financial subsidies: a swedish case study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3648453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23566064
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-310
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