How to Complete the Ohio MEDCO-14: Physician’s Report of Work Ability

The Ohio MEDCO-14 form, officially the Physician’s Report of Work Ability, is the document your treating doctor completes after every visit to tell the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation whether you can work and under what restrictions. It travels from your physician to your Managed Care Organization (or directly to a self-insured employer), and it is the medical backbone of your claim. No current MEDCO-14 on file means no Temporary Total Disability payments.

Who Completes the Form and How Often

Your treating physician fills out, signs, and submits a MEDCO-14 after every encounter related to your work injury.¹ Not once. Every visit. It is the running medical record that keeps your claim active, so a missed appointment or a form that never leaves the office can interrupt your income.

The physician does not need to submit a new form once you have been awarded permanent total disability, once you have returned to full unrestricted duty within seven days of the injury, or once a MEDCO-14 has already released you to full unrestricted work.¹ Outside those situations, expect a fresh form at every visit. If the office is not producing one, ask.

The blank PDF lives in the Ohio BWC forms library, and most physicians and MCOs already stock it.² To confirm which MCO handles your claim, use the Employer/MCO lookup on the BWC website or call 1-800-644-6292.³

What the Form Reports

You are not filling out the medical portions, but knowing what the form captures lets you catch problems before the document leaves the office. Ohio Administrative Code 4123-6-20 sets the minimum content.¹

Claim and Diagnosis Information

The top of the form records your claim number, personal details, and employer. The physician then enters ICD-10 codes for every allowed condition being treated that affects disability duration, along with a narrative description of the body areas involved, the date temporary total disability began, and any reasons recovery has been delayed.² The codes must match conditions already recognized in your claim. Listing an ICD code for a condition that has not been formally allowed will not add it to the claim; that requires a separate motion.

Physical Capabilities and Restrictions

This is the section employers and the BWC read most carefully. The form pairs a frequency scale (Never, Seldom, Occasional, Frequent, Continuous) with strength categories measured in pounds: Sedentary (0–10 lbs), Light (0–20 lbs), Medium (0–50 lbs), Heavy (0–100 lbs), and Very Heavy (over 100 lbs).² Your physician marks how often you can sit, stand, walk, lift, carry, push, and pull at each strength level. Those entries drive whether your employer can put you back to work in a modified position, so vague or blank rows create real problems.

Maximum Medical Improvement

The MMI section asks a yes-or-no question: has the injury stabilized so that no further significant improvement is expected?² A “yes” carries weight. Reaching MMI is one of the statutory grounds for ending TTD payments.⁴ If your physician checks that box and you disagree, raise it right away.

Return-to-Work Date, Vocational Rehab, Signature

The physician must give an estimated or actual return-to-work date and mark whether vocational rehabilitation is needed.¹ The date is an estimate that gets updated on each new form, not a hard deadline. The vocational rehab box matters if your restrictions look permanent and your prior job is out of reach. The physician’s signature is mandatory; an unsigned form will not be processed.²

How the Form Controls Your TTD Payments

The MEDCO-14 is the primary document the BWC uses to authorize Temporary Total Disability compensation.² Without a current one, there is no medical basis to pay you.

TTD is not a flat rate. For the first twelve weeks, you receive 72% of your full weekly wage, capped at the lesser of the statewide average weekly wage or 100% of your net take-home pay. After twelve weeks, the rate drops to 66⅔% of your average weekly wage.⁴ For 2026, the maximum weekly TTD payment is $1,281 and the minimum is $427, or your full wages if they fall below that minimum.⁵

Payments continue as long as successive MEDCO-14 forms document ongoing total disability. Ohio law ends TTD when any of these happen:

You return to work.
Your treating physician gives a written statement releasing you to your former position.
Suitable work within your documented restrictions is offered, by your employer or another employer.
You reach maximum medical improvement.

Each of those triggers ties directly to information on the form.⁴

Light Duty Offers and the Restriction Detail

Employers use the physical capabilities chart to decide whether they can build a modified position for you. Under Ohio Revised Code 4123.56, TTD can be terminated when work within your documented capabilities is made available, even if the offer comes from a different employer.⁴ Turn down an offer that fits your marked restrictions, and the Ohio Industrial Commission can stop your payments as of the date you declined.

The detail on the form matters. If your physician marks “Light” lifting (up to 20 pounds) on an “Occasional” basis, a desk job with occasional file handling falls inside those numbers. Restrictions that read as too loose give employers room to argue a position qualifies. Restrictions that look unrealistically tight can prompt the BWC to order an independent medical exam. The entries should reflect what you actually can and cannot do.

If you can do some work but your employer has nothing available, Ohio law requires you to register with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to help find suitable employment.⁴

Where the Completed Form Goes

Destination depends on your employer’s insurance setup. State-fund employers pay premiums to BWC through an MCO, so the form is faxed to your assigned MCO. Self-insured employers receive the form directly.² Most physician offices handle the transmission, but confirm it went out. If a form sits in an outbox and your benefits lapse, the practical problem lands on you.

A copy should also reach your employer so they see your current restrictions and can evaluate modified duty. Forward one to your attorney if you have one, and keep your own copy of every MEDCO-14 generated. Proof of when a form was submitted settles most disputes about payment gaps.

Common Mistakes That Delay Payments

The form is simple on paper, but small errors cause real delays.

Missing physician signature. The BWC treats an unsigned form as if it was never submitted.
ICD codes that do not match allowed conditions. Without a match, the BWC has no basis to link the treatment to your injury.
Blank rows in the physical capabilities chart. Incomplete restrictions force the MCO to request clarification, and payments can stall for weeks.
No estimated return-to-work date. The administrative code requires one; a form without it is technically incomplete.
Wrong destination. State-fund goes to the MCO, self-insured goes to the employer. Fax to the wrong place and nobody updates your file.

Look the form over before you leave the office. You are not checking the medical content, but you can catch a missing signature, a wrong claim number, or an employer name that does not match your records. Five minutes now beats a month-long payment gap later.

Fraud Exposure for False Statements

Ohio Revised Code 2913.48 makes it a crime to present a false or misleading statement to obtain workers’ compensation benefits, and the statute applies to claimants, providers, and employers alike.⁶ The physician’s certification on the MEDCO-14 puts their license behind the accuracy of what they wrote. Penalties scale with the dollar amount involved:

Under $1,000: first-degree misdemeanor.
$1,000 to $7,499: fifth-degree felony.
$7,500 to $149,999: fourth-degree felony.
$150,000 or more: third-degree felony.

Courts can also order restitution and require payment of the government’s investigation and prosecution costs.⁶ Exaggerated restrictions on a MEDCO-14 to avoid a return to work, or a physician certifying limitations not supported by the exam, both sit inside the statute’s reach.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Administrative Code 4123-6-20 – Obligation to Submit Medical Documentation and Reports
2
Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Physician’s Report of Work Ability (MEDCO-14)
3
Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Understanding a Managed Care Organization (MCO)
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4123.56 – Temporary Total Disability Compensation
5
Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Workers’ Compensation Rates 2011 to 2026
6
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 2913.48 – Workers’ Compensation Fraud