Cooperation between gatekeepers in sickness insurance - the perspective of social insurance officers. A qualitative study.

Background: Objective was to describe variations in how social insurance officers conceive the cooperation with the health care in their daily work with sick leave.

Methods: Fifteen social insurance officers (SIOs) working with administration of sickness benefits were interviewed. They were purposefully recruited to represent different parts of the social insurance office organization, different ages, gender, education, and work experience.