How it works

From application to verified documents

The full walkthrough: applying, setting up, issuing documents, and what happens when a recipient asks to verify.

Apply, and we review your credentials

You submit a short application: your name, email, credential type, license state(s), and NPI number. There is nothing to install and nothing to pay at this stage.

  • We confirm your license and NPI against public registries, such as your state's license lookup and the NPI registry.
  • We reply by email, usually within 2 business days.
  • Once approved, you choose a plan (Solo, Practice, or Group) and your first 14 days are free, with no card needed to start.
Why the review exists: every issuing provider passes identity and credential review before their first document. That review is what makes the verification answer worth something.

Set up your practice profile once

Before issuing your first document, you set up the identity that appears on your letterhead: your name and credentials, practice name, and contact details. On Practice and Group plans, each additional provider goes through the same credential review and gets their own profile.

One-time setup: after this, every letter you issue carries consistent, professional letterhead automatically, with no per-document formatting.

Write a letter, or register a form you completed

The portal does two things, and both end the same way: a PDF with its own record ID, logged and ready to be verified.

Write a letter. Choose the document type (absence note, return-to-work letter, accommodation letter, leave-support letter, or a custom letter you write yourself), fill in the clinical content, and review the finished letter. Certicare adds your letterhead, the reference line, your signature block, and the verification route.
Register a completed form. Filled in and signed an employer or insurer form already, such as an FMLA WH-380 or an Attending Physician's Statement? Upload the signed PDF instead. Certicare keeps it as the copy of record and draws one footer line in the bottom margin of each page carrying the record ID and the verification route. Your content is not changed, and the stamped copy is emailed back so you can check it before sending it on.
  • You decide whether to issue, and what the document says. Every clinical judgment stays with you.
  • Either way the issuance is logged automatically the moment you submit.
  • Letters and registered forms count the same against your monthly allowance.
Certicare provider portal with a return-to-work letter being filled in

The issuing screen. Your letterhead identity is already set, so only the clinical content changes. A second tab handles form uploads.

Verification is handled for you, in writing

When an employer, school, insurer, or other recipient wants to confirm a document, they follow the verification route on the document. They submit a written request with a copy of the document, their name, role, and organization, and one specific question.

  • A clinician reviews every request individually; the answer always comes in writing.
  • The answer confirms two things: the document was issued, and the copy submitted matches the issuance record.
  • Anything beyond issuance and record match, such as medical detail, may require the patient's signed authorization or another lawful basis.
What this means for you: verification requests stop arriving as phone calls in the middle of your clinic day. They arrive as written requests with written answers, and you keep access to your own issuance records throughout. Patient information is handled under HIPAA's rules; see Security & HIPAA.

What the issuance record holds

Every document issued or registered through the platform is logged at that moment. The record is what verification requests are checked against, and it stays available even if a subscription later ends, so documents already issued remain verifiable.

  • The document's record ID
  • The issuing provider and issuance date
  • Whether Certicare wrote the letter or the provider registered a completed form
  • The document as issued, for record-match checks
Confirmation screen showing an issued document and its record ID

The record ID appears the moment a document is issued or registered, and is printed in the document's footer.

Ready to see it with your own documents?

Apply to join See pricing