Lending a Helping Hand Page 1  Of the roughly 35 million people
who are severely disabled in the United States, only 30 percent
are employed. Every year the Office of Disability Employment
Policy (ODEP), a government agency created in 2001 within the
Department of Labor, attempts to up that percentage by
influencing government policy that supports disabled Americans.
ODEP awards grants to nonprofit organizations, state and local
governments, and academic institutions to increase employment
opportunities for the disabled. Case in point, the agency
required in April 2003 that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS), provider of healthcare insurance for about one
of every four Americans, offer home-based employment
opportunities for disabled Americans. So, CMS turned to Pearson
Government Solutions, a government outsourcing provider, for
assistance with launching a virtual call center for CMS's 1-800
MEDICARE Help Line. Pearson connected with the National
Telecommuting Institute (NTI) to recruit, hire,