Doctor's note for Walmart: do they take it, and what does it change?
What Walmart's public pages say about a doctor's note, and where the rule lives. From Certicare, where a state-licensed provider completes doctor's notes.
Does Walmart accept a doctor's note?
The two public Walmart pages that describe attendance and leave say nothing about a doctor's note: not the announcement of Protected PTO on Walmart's newsroom, dated February 1, 2019, which describes the attendance policy and the paid time off program, and not Walmart's public leave of absence overview for hourly associates.
The rule, if there is one, lives in the attendance policy that applies to you, which is on one.walmart.com. That is not a public page, so the current wording is there and not here.
What the 2019 announcement does say about an unplanned absence is this: "Absences covered by Protected PTO don't impact an associate's attendance record." and "This time can be used to cover an unplanned absence." Neither sentence mentions a note. Where a state or city sick-leave law applies, its rules sit alongside the policy.
What is a doctor's note for at Walmart?
What a note does is document the absence: for your own records, and for a manager or People Lead who asked for one. A note is not time off. Whether Protected PTO covers the absence is one question, and whether a note changes a point is another, answered on does a doctor's note remove a Walmart point.
A leave is different again. The public overview says leave runs through Sedgwick, Walmart's leave administrator, and that for intermittent leave "your doctor will need to specify how long and how often you'll be absent." That is a leave certification, not a doctor's note, and it has its own page: Walmart leave paperwork.
If a note is asked for, the $29 Certicare note is built for this: a mild, self-limiting condition, up to 3 scheduled workdays, with a limit of 6 days in any 30-day window. You answer a short online intake, usually no appointment. A state-licensed provider reviews it, and may follow up, or decide a note isn't appropriate; if the note isn't written, the $29 is refunded in full.
Payment buys the evaluation, not a particular answer. If the note is written, it's completed and signed by a state-licensed provider, dated the day it is written, and kept private and never sent to your employer or school without your say-so.
$29 flat — refunded in full if we can't complete your request
You already missed the shift. Can a note still cover it?
If the days are already behind you, that's fine. A note written today can cover days you already missed, up to 45 days back, where the evaluation supports it. How that works is on doctor's note for days already missed.
A note is dated the day it is written, never an earlier day. The dates it covers come from the evaluation; the date it was signed does not change. Keep a copy of what you hand in, and the date you handed it in.
An absence that runs past a few days is different. Then it may be a leave question rather than a note question. The $29 note covers up to 3 scheduled workdays for a mild condition; an absence longer than a few days, or one tied to a serious condition, may call for the $49 Walmart leave paperwork, a different product on its own timeline. Whether yours counts is covered on what counts as a serious health condition.
Can Walmart refuse a doctor's note?
No federal law requires an employer to accept a doctor's note for a sick day that is not FMLA leave. FMLA leave runs on a medical certification, a different document: the Department of Labor says an employer "must accept a complete and sufficient medical certification, regardless of the format." The public Walmart pages say nothing about refusing a note, so this page makes no claim about what happens after you hand one in. Where a state or city sick-leave law applies, it can set its own rules about documentation; the attendance policy that applies to you is where a Walmart rule would be written. What an employer can and can't do with a note it has received is on can an employer deny a doctor's note.
A Certicare note is completed and signed by a state-licensed provider, dated the day it is written, and verifiable. How employers verify a note, and what they can and can't confirm, is on do employers verify doctor's notes.
If a note is asked for, answer the intake questions, and a state-licensed provider reviews them and signs the note where the evaluation supports it.
The $29 doctor's note
For mild, self-limiting conditions
One note covers up to 3 scheduled workdays, with a limit of 6 days in any 30-day window
Completed and signed by a state-licensed provider
Usually within about an hour of your payment, once we have everything needed
$29 flat — refunded in full if we can't complete your request
$29 flat. For mild, self-limiting conditions: one note covers up to 3 scheduled workdays, with a limit of 6 days in any 30-day window.
Start My IntakeIf we can't complete your request, for any reason, you're refunded in full.
Sources
- Walmart, Walmart Introduces Increased Rewards and Protected PTO for Associates Nationwide (newsroom, February 1, 2019) — the public announcement of Protected PTO and the attendance policy, with no doctor's-note rule stated.
- Walmart, Leave of Absence Overview for Hourly Associates — the public leave overview: leave types, Sedgwick as leave administrator, and what intermittent leave asks of a doctor.
- U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #28G: Certification of a Serious Health Condition under the FMLA — the certification rule quoted in the "Can Walmart refuse a doctor's note?" section.