How to apply for sick leave - list of documents and where to go?

Why was a “digital” sick leave needed?

By introducing electronic sick leave, legislators pursued three main goals:

• simplify the interaction between the medical organization, the employer, the sick employee and the Social Insurance Fund;
• reduce the turnover of paper documents;
• increase control over the authenticity of certificates of incapacity for work and make their issuance transparent.

Despite the fact that issuing “digital” sick leave is a legally permitted medical government service, a doctor will be able to issue them only if three mandatory conditions are met:

1. The employee’s employer registered on the official departmental website of the Social Insurance Fund and opened a personal account there.
2. The medical institution connected to a special information system for issuing electronic certificates of incapacity for work.
3. The patient completed and signed consent to issue a digital document.

. The form is current as of January 2021.

If at least one of the above circumstances is absent, the employee will be issued a regular paper sick leave.

. The form is current as of January 2021.

The legislative framework

The issuance of electronic sick leave certificates and their completion in 2021 are regulated by several regulations:

Federal Law No. 86 of 05/01/2017 on amendments to certain legal documents, which put this system into effect (everywhere).

Federal Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2006 is the main law on insurance of employees in case of disability, pregnancy and childbirth. Article 13 is devoted to the service for issuing sick leave electronically.

Government Decree No. 1567 of December 16, 2017, which approved the instructions for interaction between the policyholder (employer), the insurer (FSS) and the medical institution.

Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development No. 624n dated June 29, 2011 on the procedure for issuing sick leave.

How do electronic sick leave sheets work for a patient?

A sick leave certificate is needed so that the employer (or the Social Insurance Fund, if the citizen lives in the region taking part in the pilot project) pays the employee for the period of incapacity due to illness.

One of the main obstacles to the widespread introduction of electronic document management in Russia is the habit of citizens of paper documents that has taken root in our country. This especially applies to the older generation of citizens who are accustomed to value and save documents in paper form. Because previously, loss or damage to papers could be expensive, especially if a person did not have the opportunity to restore the document.

For this reason, the transition to electronic sick leave in 2018 is being carried out as smoothly as possible. An electronic document is issued exclusively with the consent of patients.

If a citizen does not have confidence in the electronic sick leave certificate, then he has the right to refuse it and request the issuance of a standard paper document. But if he does not object to the electronic document, then when issuing the paperwork, he is not given any papers - he is simply informed of his sick leave number in the electronic system.

Upon returning to work, the citizen gives this number to his employer. He, in turn, enters it into the system and receives all the necessary information related to this person - everything that is required to calculate payment for the period of incapacity:

• name of the medical institution,
• date of issue of the sheet,
• period of illness (opening/closing sick leave),
• Patient's name.

Having received all the necessary information, the employer will calculate payment for sick leave.

The employee should not worry - the employer/accountant will not have access to information that does not concern them. Let's say they won't have access to the diagnosis made in the hospital. They also do not have access to sick leave issued to an employee while he was working in another institution.

Photo: pixabay.com

How it works

A medical institution opens an electronic hospital document according to the following scheme:

1. An employee, having visited a doctor’s office, informs him of his desire to take out an electronic certificate of incapacity for work (in short – ESL). At the same time he:
   informs the doctor about the participation of the employer-insurer in the information exchange of information necessary for the formation of “digital” sick leave;
2. fills out and signs an application for consent to issue a document in electronic form;
3. presents SNILS or reports its number.
4. The doctor sends an online request to the information system (Social Insurance) to assign a number to the document. Having received it, the health worker, using specially developed software, fills out the ELN. The sick leave number is provided to the insured person (patient).
5. Having completed the steps to issue an electronic sick leave, the doctor certifies it with a digital personal signature.
6. The medical institution certifies the generated document via the network with its own signature and sends it to Social Insurance.

If an employee’s illness has been prolonged and a certificate of incapacity for work needs to be extended, it is supplemented with new entries as necessary. After the sick leave is closed, a corresponding entry is made in the ENL, the document is certified with the digital signature of the doctor and the clinic, and then sent to Social Insurance.

This service is provided to patients of medical organizations free of charge. All information is transmitted through special secure channels, which are considered inaccessible to prying eyes or data correction by an outsider.

How to work with sick leave (where to look and what to do)

The electronic certificate of incapacity for work 2021 is filled out in a special computer program. The document looks the same as a paper form, and it is filled out according to the same rules.

For the policyholder, the algorithm of actions is schematically presented in the FSS memo. When switching to a new version of the document, the organization must have the following options:

1. Have access to the Internet.
2. Install a certified information cryptographic protection tool (for example, CryptoPro or ViPNet) on the computer where you are supposed to work with electronic information.
3. Receive an enhanced qualified digital signature on the FSS website. You can also use electronic signatures issued by accredited certification centers earlier.

You can receive a file with a sick leave certificate in two ways: the first is from software for maintaining automated accounting (personnel) records (for example, 1C); the second is in the policyholder’s personal account on the FSS website.

Actions of HR officers upon receipt of ELN

Having learned the number of the electronic certificate of incapacity for work, the employee reports it to the employer. Using it and the SNILS number of the employee himself, HR officers or accountants electronically request sick leave data from the Social Insurance Fund. For it to be displayed on the screen, you need to click on the “GET LN” button.

Important note! The employer gains access to the employee's digital sick leave certificate only after the document is closed by the medical organization. He will not be able to view the current ELN.

When the employer's representative receives the electronic document, he enters the missing information into it and corrects it if something is filled out incorrectly (he sees a message about this inside the system). For him, the program has an eloquent tab: “To be filled out by the employer.” In particular, he adds:

• name of the company where the insured person works;
• the part-time employee or main employee is the owner, a citizen who has been issued sick leave;
• his TIN;
• surnames with initials - the head of the company and the chief accountant;
• the average salary of the insured employee and his length of service;
• period of incapacity;
• the date he started work, and other information.

Based on the entered data, the benefit due to the employee due to disability is automatically calculated by the program. The employee receives payment for sick leave, and data on its amount is reported to the insurer - to the Social Insurance Fund.

Sample of filling out a sick leave certificate

Filling out a sick leave certificate is a procedure for a doctor to verify a worker’s incapacity for work.

An employee who wishes to issue a certificate of incapacity for work must come to the medical organization with a document proving his identity. After which the medical officer examines the patient, schedules an examination with additional doctors (if required) and enters data indicating the patient’s health and condition into his outpatient card.

The sick leave document substantiates the reason for your disability and is filled out by a doctor. This document gives you the right to receive social insurance benefits (sickness benefits). The document is made in blue.

The fields to be filled in are presented in the form of light yellow cells. The reverse side of the sheet contains information on filling out the act.

In order to protect against counterfeiting, each sheet is assigned its own unique number and barcode. There is also a watermark on the sheet (logo of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation).

Electronic sick leave certificates are currently being developed; this will help avoid fraud on the part of workers and pseudo-doctors.

The procedure for filling out the form is quite simple. In total there are 2 sections presented for completion. First, the form is filled out by the attending physician of the medical institution. It fills out 1 section:

• Makes a mark indicating whether the original form or a duplicate is issued;
• Writes down the short name of the hospital, its address and OGRN;
• Enters information about the date of issue of the document;
• Records the employee’s full name, as well as his date of birth;
• Enter the abbreviated name of the worker's organization;
• If sick leave is issued to care for relatives, then their full name is indicated, as well as the degree of relationship with the employee;
• The doctor enters information about the period of release from work;
• The medical worker indicates his position, surname and signature.

Make sure you fill out the form correctly, since a doctor’s mistake may deprive you of the hospital benefits you are entitled to by law.

After the doctor at the hospital fills out the form, it is given to the employee’s employer, who must fill out section 2 of the document. The director fills out the fields specially designated for him on the sheet:

1. Enter the abbreviated name of the work organization;
2. Then fills in the field with the status of the worker’s place of work (main or part-time);
3. Next, the director fills in the number assigned to his organization by the Social Insurance Fund;
4. Then he enters the employee’s subordination code (it consists of 4 digits) and indicates the territorial Social Insurance Fund number of the organization;
5. The employer fills out the field with the employee’s TIN, if available;
6. Enters data on the worker’s SNILS number;
7. In the “Calculation conditions” line, the employer enters data on the special conditions for enrolling benefit payments. The digital combinations for filling out can be found on the back of the sick leave form. In case of a combination of conditions, several codes are set. If there are no conditions, then the code is not written;
8. Next, the director fills out the cells in the act form in form N-1 on the date of the occupational injury. If there was no incident during the work process, then the cells remain blank;
9. The start date of work is filled in only when the employment contract with the employee is canceled. This happens if the worker does not show up for work on time. The next line contains the employee’s total insurance length. This is the time during which he was insured and paid contributions to the federal insurance service. Often this time coincides with the time of work under the employment contract;
10. Next, the director fills out a column in which it is necessary to indicate the years of military service, since it is not included in the employee’s insurance period. This provision was introduced on January 1, 2007;
11. Then data on the period of accrual of sick leave benefits is entered. This includes the time when the employee was absent from work and when he returned from sick leave;
12. The average earnings line is filled out by the employer; he enters into it the calculated average earnings for the worker’s 2 previous working years;
13. The employer's next action will be to fill out the average daily earnings column. In order to calculate it, the manager divides the total amount earned over 2 years by the number of calendar days in 2 years (usually 730). With this operation, the director receives the employee's average daily earnings;
14. In the line “Benefit amount: at the expense of the employer,” the manager enters the amount of funds that the worker will receive. According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the director pays for the first 3 days of sick leave from his own funds;
15. Then fill in a line with information about the funds transferred from the social insurance fund. The first part was described in the paragraph above. The second part of the hospital benefit is transferred to the Social Insurance Fund;
16. Next, the total amount of sick leave benefits provided to the worker is calculated;
17. The manager writes his last name and initials on the form, and also signs;
18. The last line contains information about the full name of the chief accountant. He also signs the form;
19. The final point in filling out a sick leave certificate is the affixing of the organization’s seal by the employer.

Filling out the form requires care and double-checking.

Advantages and disadvantages of electronic registration

On the one hand, the reduction of paperwork and the high degree of reliability of the electronic document are its undeniable advantages over paper counterparts. However, this method still has many disadvantages.

Table 1. Advantages and disadvantages of issuing sick leaves in electronic form