Vocational rehabilitation service receipt, service expenditures, and ruralness

BACKGROUND: An important factor embedded within Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) delivery capacity relates to geography, such as distance from the VR office and availability of service providers or community rehabilitation programs. OBJECTIVE: We explored receipt of VR job search and placement services based on distance to an urban center, demographics, and disability variables after controlling for local employment conditions. METHODS: Using 2015 RSA-911 case services data, we used probit to produce estimates for each combination of service and service source (agency and purchased), and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and semi-parametric regression to estimate log expenditures for each service category. RESULTS: Being Black or living at a long distance from a metro area increased the probability of receiving agency-based services but lowered the probability of receiving purchased services. Conversely, being older and having less education lowered the probability of receiving agency services but increased the probability of receiving purchased services. Females, Blacks, and those living at a distance greater than 50 miles from a metro area received significantly lower expenditures. CONCLUSION: Systematic differences in the types of services provided call for more in-depth analysis to ensure that policies and procedures are in place to minimize sociodemographic disparities in service delivery and outcomes.