General information for practitioners

From 31 January 2022, we changed review periods for Work Capacity Medical Certificates. This means that as a health practitioner, you can recommend when your patient should next be reviewed or when they’ll have capacity to return to work.

You can help people see work as something that is, in many cases, vital to their health and well-being. Here at Work and Income, we can support them to find that work.

We depend on assessments from health practitioners, eg, doctors, nurse practitioners, midwives and dentists, to help us determine whether people are eligible for health related financial assistance and whether they're capable of doing some work.

Regional Health and Disability Teams develop and maintain relationships with health and disability practitioners.

Regional Health and Disability Teams develop and maintain relationships with health and disability practitioners. They’re key liaisons and support health practitioners by informing them of Work and Income services and processes.

To contact your local health and disability team

If you do not have their contact details, please call our General Enquiries number 0800 559 009 and one of our Customer Services Representatives will arrange for them to contact you.

The relationship between health and disability practitioners and Work and Income is important to us. To contribute to the smooth administration of a person's benefit or assistance from Work and Income, we need you to:

• let people know that they must see a health practitioner to have a medical certificate completed
• encourage people to make an appointment at least 5 working days before their last certificate expires. This will ensure their benefit is not interrupted and allow time for any issues to be resolved
• maintain a stock of manual Work Capacity Medical Certificates and/or ensure the most to up to date version of the electronic Work Capacity Medical Certificate is available
• when possible, liaise with the health and disability team who will provide you with up-to-date information on Work and Income services and processes
• tell the health and disability team when your contact details change
• ensure billing statements associated with designated health practitioner referrals or host doctor reports are completed and submitted to the National Accounting Centre
• maintain a stock of brochures which help clients understand the range of assistance available from Work and Income.

To order brochures or Work Capacity Medical Certificate pads, please call 0800 559 009

Health practitioners may request medical records from a previous health practitioner prior to completing a certificate for a new patient. If this will delay the completion of the person's medical certificate, please advise the person and suggest that they talk to Work and Income.

The person is liable for their medical certificate consultation fee.

If a person has outstanding fees owing to your practice and this is a barrier to them obtaining an appointment, it is the responsibility of the person to inform Work and Income about this.