Your return-to-work form, completed and signed by a state-licensed provider
Your employer wants a signed form before you can come back. A state-licensed provider completes it, usually within 24 hours after we have everything needed. $49 flat, with a full refund if we can't complete your request.
Online questionnaire, usually no appointment. A provider may follow up before deciding.
One thing to check before you pay: if you were hurt on the job, Certicare can't take your case. Workplace injuries run through your employer's workers' compensation process, and the return-to-work paperwork has to come from that process. Everything else that kept you out — an illness, a surgery, a mental health condition, a hospitalization — is what the intake is for.
Who fills out a return-to-work form?
A licensed medical provider does. That's the reason the form exists: your employer wants a clinician's signature confirming you're ready to work, not your own word for it. Some employers accept a return-to-work letter from a provider. Others require their own form, the way Amazon uses its Return to Work (RTW) Planning Form.
Certicare covers both. If your employer gave you a form, you upload it at intake and a state-licensed provider completes and signs it, field by field. If they just said “bring a doctor’s note clearing you,” you get a signed return-to-work letter instead.
What if my own doctor won't sign it?
It happens constantly, and it isn't about you. Urgent care treats the illness, then says it doesn't fill out employer paperwork. Telehealth apps decline forms by policy. A primary care office may charge per form and quote a week or two, for paperwork your employer wants before your next shift.
That paperwork refusal is the problem Certicare exists for. You answer an online questionnaire about your condition and your time out, usually with no appointment. A state-licensed provider reviews your answers and may follow up for more detail before deciding.
Paying starts the review; it doesn't guarantee documentation. If the review doesn't support your return, we don't sign it — and you're refunded in full.
Can I go back to work with restrictions?
Yes, when the provider's review supports it. Return-to-work paperwork isn't all-or-nothing. It can document full clearance, or a return with specific temporary restrictions: a lifting limit, less time on your feet, a modified schedule, a pause on safety-sensitive duties. Which of those goes on your paperwork is the clinician's judgment, made from your intake answers.
If your employer's form has a restrictions section, the provider completes it as written. If you're getting a letter, the restrictions are written into it.
$49 covers one return-to-work case: the clinical review, the forms that case needs, and any follow-up your employer or leave administrator asks for afterward. The price is shown before you start, and nothing is added later.
If we can't complete your request, for any reason, you're refunded in full.
Secure online intake. What you tell us is kept private and never sent to your employer without your say-so.
Your employer can verify the document directly with Certicare by email.
Questions before you start: hello@certicare.org
What counts as a fitness-for-duty certification?
Mostly the same document under a different name. A fitness-for-duty certification is a licensed provider's signed statement that you can perform your job, with or without restrictions. Employers and leave administrators also call it a work release form, a return-to-work letter, or a clearance. Some employers require one after any medical leave, including after a longer medical leave.
Whatever name is on your paperwork, what your employer wants underneath it is the same thing: a state-licensed provider's review, and a signature. That's what the intake starts.
How fast can I get it?
Usually within 24 hours after we have everything needed. For most cases that's two things: your questionnaire answers, and the form your employer issued — if they issued one — uploaded at intake.
The questionnaire is online, and the completed paperwork arrives by email. A provider may still follow up with a question before signing; the 24 hours runs from when we have everything, so quick answers keep it moving.
Founded by someone who's been there
Rebecca Martel, APRN, FNP-BC, is a family nurse practitioner who has completed hundreds of these forms.
You don't need to know which document your employer wants. Start the intake, upload what they sent you, and we'll take it from there.
Start My IntakeCerticare completes verifiable documentation to standard requirements, but your employer or school makes the final decision on whether to accept it. This is general information, not legal advice.