How to get a work status report from the treating doctor on a workers comp claim, for claims assistants?

Send the state’s work status form to the treating doctor’s clinic with the claim number, date of injury, body part, and a return fax or portal. A complete report says off work, modified duty with specific restrictions, or full duty, with dates. Follow until that form lands. Rules vary. This is not legal advice.

This is for the claims assistant, case coordinator or medical-only examiner at a regional TPA, self-insured desk or carrier unit on Guidewire, Origami Risk, mySedgwick, Juris or a spreadsheet of outstanding items.

A work status report is the treating doctor’s written statement of whether the injured worker can work, and under what restrictions. The adjuster uses it to pay or stop temporary disability. The employer uses it to offer modified duty. It is not the chart, not an IME or QME opinion, and not a verbal from the front desk. The counterparty is the treating clinic, not HIM. Rules vary. Check counsel. This is not legal advice.

What a complete work status report contains

A complete report is the state’s numbered form, or the clinic form where the state has no number.

Item	Why it is on the report
Name, claim number, date of injury	Wrong person or wrong DOI
Full duty, modified duty, or off work	The three statuses the diary uses
Effective date, and an estimated end date if the form asks	A status with no date is not current
Specific restrictions, if modified duty	Pounds, hours, standing, sitting, reaching. “Light duty” is not a restriction
How the injury prevents work, if off work	Texas DWC Form-073 requires that explanation in box 13c
Next visit and treating-doctor signature	Diary date for the next report. A stamp is not this filing

Texas DWC Form-073 (Rev. 09/19, read 2026-10-09), Florida DFS-F5-DWC-25 (Rev. 1/31/2008, read 2026-10-09) and California Form PR-2 (Rev. 10/2015, read 2026-10-09) are the numbered packets. Other states use a clinic form. Ask the treating office to complete the form the file needs.

What to put in the request

Where a rule starts a clock, it runs from a complete request to the desk that writes the status.

Item	Why it is on the request
The state’s form, or the clinic form, blank and attached	The clinic will not hunt the form
Claim number, name, date of injury, body part	Match to the right visit
Exam date, if it is already on the diary	So they pull the right encounter
The medical release already on the claim	Clinics still often want it, even where 45 CFR 164.512(l) (eCFR as of 2026-10-07, read 2026-10-09) allows disclosure without authorization
Return fax or portal, assistant name, callback, diary date	So the form lands on this file
On a Texas file, a functional job description if the employer has modified duty	28 TAC §129.5(g) (compiled rules updated 2026-09-28, read 2026-10-09) then gives the treating doctor seven days to file

Send it on the clinic fax or portal already on the claim. Do not autodial the injured worker’s cell for this packet.

What to leave off

Item	Why it delays or fails
Request to HIM for the full chart	HIM holds the chart. Work status is a treating-doctor form
“Please send last visit’s notes” with no form	Notes are backup. They are not the work status
Asking the injured worker to pick up a note as the only chase	The doctor files with the carrier. A pocket copy does not close the item
A verbal from the front desk, or “light duty” with no pounds or hours	Not a form the adjuster can defend. Employer cannot match it to a job
An IME, QME or designated-doctor status used to close the treating-doctor item	That exam is not the treating doctor of record

Who has the report, and how to chase

The treating doctor’s office holds the form. HIM usually does not. On r/WorkersComp in August 2025, a referred pain-management doctor said, “I do not handle restrictions at all nor work status reports. I only diagnose and do treatment,” and temporary disability stopped. The treating or principal physician of record still has the reporting duty.

1. Pull the outstanding work-status row from Guidewire, Origami Risk, mySedgwick, Juris or the spreadsheet.
2. Find the treating clinic fax already on the file. If the only number is HIM, ask for the treating doctor’s work-status fax by name.
3. Send the complete request on that channel. Log the sent date, number, and who took it.
4. If nothing is back in three business days, call the same clinic. Do not open a second request to a new inbox.
5. When the indemnity diary is inside 14 days, escalate to the office manager, then the treating doctor of record. On a Texas file, 28 TAC §129.5(e)(3) lets the carrier request the report on a schedule.

State clocks we read

Only states whose rule or form we read. Other states differ.

Place	Form	When the treating doctor has to file
Texas	DWC Form-073	After the initial exam, when status or restrictions change, and on a carrier schedule not more than every two weeks. To the worker at the exam. To the carrier and employer by the end of the second working day. Seven days after a functional job description or an RME return-to-work status. §129.5. Full duty is not MMI.
Florida	DFS-F5-DWC-25	First treatment: to the insurer and employer within three business days (DWC-25-A, Rev. 01/01/2015, read 2026-10-09), matching §440.13(4)(a) (2026 Florida Statutes, read 2026-10-09). Later visits: next business day, or at most 30 days from the prior DWC-25. No substitute form (69L-7.730, read 2026-10-09).
California	PR-2	Within 20 days of a change in work status, restrictions, return to modified or regular work, or leaving work. Periodic report no later than 45 days from the last report of any type. If there was an exam, signed and sent within 20 days of it. One copy to the claims administrator. 8 CCR §9785 (read 2026-10-09). Once permanent and stationary, use PR-3 or PR-4.

On r/humanresources in February 2025, a Texas HR poster wrote that an emergency room gave a doctor’s note with a return-to-work date and no Work Status Report. That letter does not close a DWC Form-073 row.

When the packet comes back incomplete

What landed	Why it is not done	What to do
Visit notes or an ER “seen” letter, no form	Notes are not the work status	Resend the form. Keep the notes as backup
“Light duty” with no pounds or hours	Employer cannot match it to a job	Return it. Ask for lifting, standing, sitting, reaching and hours
Texas Form-073 with box 13c blank on an off-work status	Incomplete under §129.5(d)(4)	Return it. The form asks how the injury prevents work
Florida DWC-25 with Section IV blank, or a California PR-2 with work status empty	No full-duty, modified or off-work instruction	Return it. Florida items 21–23 are the work-status block
Verbal from the front desk, or a specialist who “doesn’t do restrictions”	Not a filing, or the wrong doctor	Get the signed form from the treating or principal physician

A full-duty Texas DWC Form-073 is still not MMI. §129.5(a)(4)(A) says return without restrictions is not equivalent to maximum medical improvement. Leave the MMI item open.

Specialists, IME opinions, and the employer copy

Send the request to the treating or principal office, not every specialist on the referral list. California 8 CCR §9785(b)(1) allows only one primary treating physician at a time. A Texas treating doctor may delegate DWC Form-073 to a PA or APRN and stays responsible for it. An IME, QME or designated-doctor status answers that exam. It does not close the treating-doctor row.

The employer usually gets work status and restrictions, not the chart. On r/WorkersComp in June 2024, an active adjuster wrote that they cannot give the employer medical information other than work status and restrictions. Do not fax the chart to the plant when the outstanding item is work status.

Pull the open lost-time claims with a work-status row still outstanding and a clock in the next 14 days. Confirm each has the state’s form sent to the treating doctor’s office rather than HIM, with the claim number, date of injury, body part and a return fax. Resend any visit note, verbal, or “light duty” with no pounds or hours, and log the sent date that afternoon.