Errors in the new sick leave certificate made by the employer and the medical institution: how to correct it?

What is the new procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work?

The Russian Ministry of Health, by order No. 925n dated September 1, 2020, changed the rules for issuing sick leave. The main change is that almost all sick leave has become electronic. As an exception, paper documents will be issued by:

• for pregnancy and childbirth for women who were fired due to the liquidation of the organization or lost their status as an individual entrepreneur (lawyer, notary);
• unemployed citizens to confirm the validity of failure to appear at the employment center.

IMPORTANT!
The extension of the certificate of incapacity for work is carried out in the form in which it is opened. Correction of errors in sick leave can now be completed only by re-sending an electronic document to the Social Insurance Fund with an explanation of the reasons.

If a person finds himself in quarantine or self-isolation for any reason, he will receive sick leave for the entire period of isolation or suspension from work. This also applies to parents of children under 7 years of age when quarantine is declared in kindergarten.

Medical organizations will be able to register sick leave remotely using telemedicine technologies. This applies to all sick leave, including long-term leave due to pregnancy and childbirth. The conditions for registration and processing of electronic sick leave will remain the same. Both the employer and the employee will have access to them, and employers will continue to calculate cash benefits. It takes 3 business days to post information in the information system for the assignment and payment of benefits.

Use free updated instructions for filling out sick leave from ConsultantPlus:

to read.

Personnel officer or accountant - who fills out the document

To ensure that sick leave forms are filled out in your organization without errors, identify the responsible employee. Set these responsibilities in the specialist’s job description and familiarize him with them under his signature.

The manager decides who to appoint to this position. It is permissible to entrust the preparation to a personnel officer. An employee of the HR department will only be able to enter the name of the company, OGRN, registration data of the company (OGNR) and employee (TIN, SNILS), dates. Only an accountant who knows how to fill out a sick leave certificate for an employer can calculate the amount of benefits, taking into account the latest requirements of the legislation on calculating benefits for temporary disability. Please take this into account when assigning someone in charge.

IMPORTANT!

Regardless of which specialist was assigned the responsibilities for filling, the responsibility still lies with the head of the company.

How to fill out an electronic sick leave certificate

Starting from 2021, employees will issue electronic certificates of incapacity for work. You no longer need to receive a paper copy and submit it to the employer for verification. The interaction of the parties (the employer and the Social Insurance Fund) and the issuance of sick leave is carried out through the policyholder’s account in the Social Insurance information system (clause 72 of Order No. 925n).

Current step-by-step instructions on how to apply for sick leave in 2021 for the policyholder:

Step 1. Register in the policyholder's Personal Account. Registration is available through an account on the government services portal. After authorization in the Social Insurance system, you must fill out a card with the registration information of the organization.

Step 2. Obtain the number of the sick leave certificate from the sick employee. The doctor fills out his part electronically, signs the document with an enhanced digital signature and uploads it to the Social Insurance system. The employer finds the slip by the number that the employee has.

Step 3. The accountant calculates temporary disability benefits; the rules for calculating compensation in 2021 have not changed. The specialist fills out the employer's part electronically and signs the document with an enhanced electronic signature. An electronic digital signature, which is used for submitting electronic reporting, is suitable for verification.

This concludes filling out the certificate of incapacity for work for the employer. The completed and signed sick leave immediately goes to the Social Insurance Fund, after which the fund’s specialists calculate and pay the required benefits.

Organizational matters

2. How and where is the authenticity of a sick leave certificate verified?

To check the electronic sick leave, you can contact the territorial office of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation at the place of registration of the company or the regional office at the address of the medical organization whose details are indicated on the sick leave.

3. Why switch to electronic sick leave?

Electronic sick leave cannot be lost, damaged or faked. All information about it is stored in the social insurance system, and the policyholder can request it repeatedly. Electronic sick leave does not need to be presented during inspections by the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation. It is also worth noting that when using electronic sick leave, the employer can interact with the social insurance fund through accounting programs.

4. Is it possible to get sick leave retroactively?

Following the procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work, approved by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, sick leave is issued by a health worker after examining the citizen and recording his health in the patient’s card. If citizens are treated in a clinic, then sick leave is issued on the day of treatment. If treatment takes place in a hospital, the citizen receives a certificate of incapacity for work on the day of discharge. In exceptional cases, sick leave can be obtained for the past time.

5. What is required to replace foreign medical documents with a Russian sick leave?

Foreign documents that confirm a citizen’s illness must be translated into Russian, and the translation must be notarized. Also, in order to replace such papers with a Russian sick leave, they must be legalized, and the entries in them must confirm the citizen’s state of health. The only formality to certify the authenticity of a document is the affixing of an apostille by the competent authority of the state in which the document was issued. To replace a foreign document with a Russian sick leave, the applicant can contact the medical organization either personally or by proxy.

6. Does the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation plan to completely switch to electronic documentation in the future, and collect fines for refusal to issue digital sick leave?

Now electronic sick leaves are equivalent to paper ones. If an employer has the technical ability to accept a document in digital form, but refuses to do so, then this is considered a violation of the employee’s rights. However, there is no obligation to switch to digital only in the legislation of the Russian Federation.

What does a paper sick leave look like?

Any citizen of Russia has the opportunity to receive free medical care, and employed Russians have the right to apply for financial support. Thus, an employer who pays contributions for temporary disability and maternity for his subordinates is obliged to pay sickness benefits to employees.

The document defining the duration of the period of absence from work and the conditions for calculating payments has a unified form. The form has been valid since 2011.

A standardized paper form must have a watermark, otherwise you have a fake on your hands. Each form has a unique serial number to protect against counterfeiting. It's in the top right corner, right below the barcode. The reverse side of the form is not intended for entering information. On the back are the rules for filling out sick leave by the employer, accountant and doctor.

IMPORTANT!

An electronic certificate of incapacity for work is drawn up according to the same rules and sent to the employer via secure communication channels.

Reasons why sick leave is not accepted at work

Errors due to which the certificate of incapacity cannot be accepted:

• lack of one of the required seals;
• incorrect information about the patient, that is, errors in writing his full name, incorrectly indicated gender or date of birth;
• errors in data about a medical institution - incorrect name or address;
• lack of signature or initials of the doctor who wrote out the sheet;
• incorrectly specified disease code.

Avoiding the fuss associated with re-issuing a certificate of incapacity for work is actually not at all difficult - you just need to check on the spot that all the requirements set out here are met. Of course, there are individual incidents that are not so easy to correct immediately, for example, a discrepancy between the name of a medical institution on the seal and the new one, but most errors can be corrected immediately, on the spot, by filling out a new sheet. You should not rely on “maybe” and think that if the stamp on the sick leave certificate is not readable, or you notice an error, then the employee receiving the document at the enterprise where you work will not notice it - and if he notices, he will not attach any importance to it. It is better to spend a few extra minutes in the hospital than to return later for a duplicate document.

How to fill out a paper sick leave

The list of situations for filling out a paper certificate of incapacity for work is determined by Order of the Ministry of Health No. 925n. This standard also specifies how to correctly fill out a sick leave certificate for the employer - the policyholder and the attending physician:

1. Basic information about the disease is entered by the attending physician at the medical institution.
2. The employee gives the sheet to the employer.
3. The accountant checks the authenticity of the document and fills in the remaining part - information about earnings and the amount of insurance payments.

Please note the following rules:

1. One cell of the form contains only one character - a letter, a number, a sign.
2. Enter words in block letters by hand or using a printing device.
3. When entering information by hand, use only black ink.
4. If the doctor made a mistake, no corrections are made; a duplicate should be written out. On the re-filled form it is written about.
5. If the employer made a mistake, corrections are made according to generally accepted rules.

If there is an error in the information provided, the completed sick leave is corrected. Incorrect information should be carefully crossed out, and correction agents should not be used. Correct data is written on the reverse side. They make the inscription “Believe the corrected person”, certify it with the signature of the person who made the corrections, indicate his position, full name with a transcript. The organization's seal is affixed if available.

Does the employer have to stamp the form?

The form is filled out not only in the hospital, but also in the organization in which the patient works, and in this regard, the question arises - is it necessary to put the employer’s seal on the document too?

This is not mandatory in all cases, that is, it cannot be said that a sick leave certificate without this stamp is invalid. It is desirable to affix it, however, if the organization does not use a seal, then the signature of an authorized person will be sufficient.

The absence of an organization’s stamp will not be a reason for the FSS to reject a document.

What does a medical institution fill out?

The first entries on the sick leave certificate are made by a doctor or other responsible employee of a medical institution. The health worker fills out the first section of the document. Here are the key filling principles that apply to a medical organization:

1. Make a note of which document is being issued: primary or duplicate.
2. Indicate the short name of the medical institution, location address and OGRN.
3. Record the date the document was issued to the patient.
4. Enter the patient's full name and date of birth.
5. Enter the name of the employing organization from the patient’s words.
6. Indicate whether this is the patient’s main place of work or whether he works part-time.
7. Register the code of the degree of relationship if the LN was issued to care for a relative (you will need to enter his full name).
8. In the tabular section, enter the periods of release from work. Then - the position of the doctor, his full name, certify with the signature and seal of the treating specialist.
9. Indicate the date when the patient will begin work.

According to other rules, a sheet for pregnancy and childbirth is drawn up. As in the certificate of incapacity for work for a disabled employee, it requires the indication of certain details, but this is done by the medical organization.

Read more in the article “How to correctly calculate sick leave for pregnancy and childbirth.”

This completes the doctor’s obligations to fill out the form.

New sick leave: mistakes that are correctable and not

The article from the magazine “MAIN BOOK” is relevant as of October 7, 2011. ILYUKHINA Tatyana Mitrofanovna Head of the Department of Legal Support of Insurance in Case of Temporary Disability and in Connection with Maternity of the Legal Department of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosova has been working in the central office of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation for more than 10 years. Interviewed by GK correspondent A.V.

Khoroshavkina The queues at clinics have increased: doctors, who are famous for their poor handwriting, are slowly and diligently filling out new sick leave forms in block letters (hereinafter referred to as the Procedure). They are very afraid of making a mistake, because otherwise they will have to rewrite everything again.

And then, when recovered patients bring sick leave to the accounting department, accountants begin to be afraid.

After all, if you miss a doctor’s mistake or, God forbid, make a mistake yourself, the Social Insurance Fund will not accept the expenses.

And if the sick leave suddenly turns out to be fake, and you didn’t notice, it’s scary to even think about what could happen. In order to at least a little dispel these fears, we turned to the Social Insurance Fund. Tatyana Mitrofanovna, why did you need to change sick leave forms? T.M. Ilyukhina: The main reason is that the previous form did not technically meet modern requirements.

After all, it could only be filled and processed manually. But now medical institutions will fill sick leave with the help of a special program, it has already been developed and is on the FSS website. Another significant drawback of the old sick leave is that, given the small size of the sheet, a significant amount of information was entered into it, and on both sides.

It was inconvenient to both fill and process. In addition, cases of falsification and sale of fake sick leave have recently become more frequent.

Therefore, it was necessary to introduce additional means of protecting forms. The new form of certificate of incapacity for work is free of these shortcomings. It is larger in size: A4 format, not A5.

And, most importantly, it meets modern technical standards: it is machine readable and has a multi-level degree of protection. For example, in the upper right corner of the new form there is a unique barcode with a combination of 12 numbers.

The upper left corner uses a binary code.

For now, the medical institution does not have to fill it out, because this can only be done with the help of special equipment. But soon such equipment will appear in medical institutions and this code will become an integral part of the sick leave certificate.

It will encode the cause of disability, notes on violation of the regime, family relationship (if sick leave is issued to care for a family member) and other necessary information. This information will be read using a scanner by employees of FSS departments when checking sick leave.

The use of codes will allow you to quickly process and transmit information. But the criminal world is also improving its methods.

Legislation and highlights

Regardless of length of service, 100% of the minimum size will be used . The average daily earnings are calculated from the minimum wage amount, which is multiplied by the number of days of maternity leave.

What will the benefit be?

• When it comes to employees, their sick leave is paid by the employer (the first 3 days).
• The disability of individual entrepreneurs whose social insurance contract has entered into force is paid by the Social Insurance Fund from the first day.

Rules for filling out individual columns

There are columns on the sick leave sheet that raise a number of questions when filled out. Employees of medical institutions often have problems writing the name of the organization.

Many employers do not know how to correctly enter information about the insurance period. There are also difficulties for company managers in filling out the field about the start date of a subordinate’s work activity.

Name of company

Abbreviating the name of an employer at your discretion is prohibited by law. The name is written in a row as long as there are enough cells . Let's allow words to be broken and well-known abbreviations to be used (LLC, TOV, etc.). Many organizations, in addition to the full name, approve its abbreviated version.

In this case, it is permitted to use a shorter name. There are often situations when the patient does not know the exact name of the organization in which he works.

In this case, the therapist should leave the appropriate field blank. The doctor should ask the patient to find out the exact name of the company before the next visit. When closing a certificate of temporary disability, all missing information is entered into it.

An employer does not have the right to indicate its name for an employee of a medical institution. Moreover, with the advent of electronic versions of sick leave certificates, this is impossible.

Start date

The field about the start date of work is filled out only in the case when an employment contract was concluded with the employee, which was subsequently canceled due to the illness of a subordinate.

For example, Sidorov A.A. signed an agreement with the employer “Svet”, according to which he was to begin fulfilling his official duties on December 11, 2019. But on December 9 of this year he fell ill.

The manager, according to Article No. 61 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, can cancel the agreement concluded with A.A. Sidorov. Contract. At the same time, the employee retains the right to receive temporary disability benefits.

The sick leave line in question indicates the date the employee began performing his job duties in accordance with a previously signed but canceled employment contract.

Insurance experience

The insurance period on the sick leave certificate is allocated four cells. In the first two, the years are written, and in the second part, the months. For example, if an employee has an insurance period of 2 years and three months, then this will be indicated as follows: 02 03. If the subordinate has worked for less than a month, then zeros are entered in the cells.

Limitation on the duration of sick leave in case of a canceled contract

The duration of paid sick leave upon cancellation of the contract is limited to 75 days (Clause 4, Article 6 of the Law “On Compulsory Social Insurance” dated December 29, 2006 No. 255-FZ). But if the cause of temporary disability is tuberculosis, then this restriction does not apply.

For comparison: if sick leave is issued by a full-time employee, then its duration for which benefits are paid can be (clause 19 of the Procedure for issuing and processing personal income tax):

• 15 days, if a certificate of incapacity for work is issued by the attending physician, as a rule, for a common disease, for example, an acute respiratory infection;
• 10 months, if sick leave (several sick leaves in a row) is issued by a medical commission, subject to a favorable work and clinical prognosis.

In case of tuberculosis, the duration of sick leave can be 12 months.

Regulations for filling out certificates

The current regulations clearly outline the circle of persons allowed to enter information into a medical certificate. The citizen (company employee) to whom it is issued is excluded from it. His task is to contact a doctor, receive treatment and receive a document with subsequent transfer to management.

He, in turn, writes down his information and transfers the sheet to the Social Insurance Fund, where the citizen’s incapacity for work, including maternity leave, entails the transfer of insurance payments to the account of the employer’s company. The received funds are transferred to the employee.

It is important to know! The certificate indicates each date when the patient visited the attending physician, after which there is either an extension or discharge. If there are not enough fields, another form is issued, and this is the one provided to the employer.

An encoding system is used, where most of the information is entered in an encrypted format and is read automatically. If filled in incorrectly, the equipment will not detect the information, which will complicate the calculation or make it impossible.

The procedure for filling out the sheet by a medical institution

The head of medical institutions strictly monitors the order, since each form is accountable. There is a step-by-step regulation indicating how to fill out a sick leave certificate:

1. At the top, information is displayed about whether the sheet is the primary sheet or whether it is a duplicate copy. A duplicate is allowed only if the number of the original document is indicated. Filling out 2 fields at the same time makes the certificate incorrect;
2. The name (allowed in a shortened format) and address of the institution that issued the document. Letters and numbers are separated by one cell;
3. OGRN (registration number) and date of completion. If the hospital appears as a legal entity, the number consists of 15, and if as an individual entrepreneur, it consists of 13 digits;
4. Information about caring for a sick citizen. Usually this is a child or a close relative. If several people require care, a sheet is issued for each of them;
5. Patient information. This includes full name, place of residence, INN and SNILS, code designation of disability, place of work (both main and part-time jobs are indicated). If the employee does not know the name of the organization, the column remains empty - for subsequent filling by the employer;
6. The next paragraph specifies the period of validity of the document, the doctor’s specialization, for example, “therapist”;
7. The number from which the citizen is discharged is indicated below. When extending, a code designation is entered in the “Other” field and the number of the next sick leave is given;
8. The medical part of the document is completed by printing. The main requirement is a clear name of the institution. Sometimes the seals do not contain his specialization, for example, if it is a drug treatment hospital or a skin and venereal disease clinic. The absence of a profile is intended to preserve medical confidentiality;
9. The tear-off spine of the sick leave certificate is filled out by the attending physician, entering a minimum of information. This is the history number, the date the certificate was issued. Unlike other sections, the patient signs on the spine.

Entering information by the employer

The issuance of sick leave by company management is also regulated, but unlike medical staff, corrections are allowed. The insurance fund will not refuse to accept the document. When filling, the following structure is used:

1. Company name. Abbreviations and incomplete names are allowed;
2. Format of activity (main position, part-time);
3. Company identifiers (numbering, codes);
4. Employee identifiers (TIN and SNILS);
5. Information about the patient’s work experience;
6. Field N-1. Filling is carried out only in case of a work-related injury;
7. Date of return to work;
8. Wage. The information is provided by the accounting department. Payment is made partially at the expense of the company (pays for the first 3 days) and the Social Insurance Fund;
9. Signatures of responsible persons (manager, chief accountant). In the absence of an accountant, both columns are filled in by the manager. The company seal is affixed.

No more than two corrections are allowed for the entire certificate.

What to pay attention to

The order of the Ministry of Health directly indicates the list of persons who have the right to open, close and extend sick leave. If disability is in question, the decision to assign a group is issued by MSEC, and information about the patient’s referral to the commission is included in the certificate.

Instructions on how to correctly fill out a sick leave certificate require the specialist to enter codes. It is not necessary to prescribe the diagnosis itself.

It is important to know! Some cells may remain empty. This is allowed for special fields related to outpatient treatment while the patient was inpatient or vice versa. The instructions call for dashes, but in practice the fields may be left blank.