The Early Intervention (EI) project is designed to offer return to work services to SSDI applicants. In Year One, service delivery models and participant selection processes were deigned. In Years Two and Three, process demonstration procedures and evaluation plans were developed for the two different service delivery models that will be implemented in three states (New Mexico, Vermont, and Wisconsin).

In Year Four, the project team continues to refine the procedures and evaluation plans to be implemented in the three pilot states suing baseline data collected from each state's provider market. Recommendations for provider-applicant information exchange will be
developed, in addition to personal interviews with private disability insurance carriers to understand the factors used to guide case management decisions and to determine if private insurers practices may be applicable to the EI project.

Designing an Early Intervention Demonstration to Return Applicants for Social Security Disability Benefits to Work

This report provides the framework for the Early Intervention project. Its purpose is to design an Early Intervention demonstration for the Social Security Administration. The report begins with a description of how applicants for SSA Disability Insurance are selected to participate in the Early Intervention program. It then discusses "informed choice", a proposed "menu of inducements" and division of demonstration participants into treatment and control groups. Organization and administrative issues are discussed and the report describes the three proposed models for demonstrating the feasibility of an early intervention program. The report concludes with a statement of general return to work philosophy that governs these demonstrations and the next steps to be taken with the project.

The Selection of Social Security Disability Applicants for an Early Intervention Program: Identifying Probable Beneficiaries Who are Likely to Return to Work

One of the principal tasks of our unit at Rutgers is to design a demonstration project in which the Social Security Administration will offer return to work services to applicants for Disability Insurance benefits. We have spent the last year designing the project which will be piloted in three states during the next year.

Offering services to applicants, before their claims are allowed or denied, takes the SSA into new and uncharted territory. In our first paper on selection, we explore the issues involved in the selection process and recommend possible solutions. Since this is very much a work in progress, we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Evaluation Design of the Early Intervention Pilot

This paper presents Rutgers' proposed design of a process and impact analysis of the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Early Intervention pilot. Early Intervention (EI) is a program of the SSA which tests alternative ways to provide Return To Work (RTW) services to Disability Insurance (DI)'s applicants. The EI pilot evaluation will be limited in scope. Given the small sample sizes in each state, we recognize that it will not be possible to derive reliable results of the impacts of EI. However, the pilot evaluation is expected to provide valuable information for the upcoming national demonstration.