How to check a sick leave certificate for authenticity: reliable methods

How to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate

Any employee who is absent from work due to illness is required to provide the employer with a certificate of incapacity for work.
Within 5 days, the accounting department transfers it to the Social Insurance Fund. We remind you! Since 2021, the FSS pilot project has been operating throughout the Russian Federation. Our experts have prepared a special guide for accountants on direct benefit payments in 2021. Go to this material and see the recommendations of professionals.

See here for details.

If the sick leave is issued in electronic form, the possibility of forgery is excluded.

Find out how information is currently being exchanged between the Social Insurance Fund, insurers and medical organizations in order to generate electronic sick leave from the publication “Electronic sick leave: a new order.”

Since paper sick leave certificates are currently used on a par with electronic ones, risks associated with paper sick leaves remain. If the sick leave turns out to be fake, the Social Insurance Fund will not pay the employee benefits.

To avoid such trouble, the employer should check the authenticity of the document independently. The original document form contains several degrees of protection:

• watermarks with the “FSS of Russia” logo, which are easy to see by shining a light through the document;
• microtext “Certificate of Incapacity for Work”, written on the line under the column “Doctor’s signature”;
• microfibers in paper;
• in the upper right corner on the back of the document is the company name;
• luminous words that are visible when the specimen is illuminated with ultraviolet light;

You can also check the sick leave certificate by number, since it is printed and has irregularities that can be easily felt if you run your finger over them.

For other features of visual verification of the sick leave form, read the material “Sick leave - 10 signs of fraud” .

In addition, you can check the authenticity of the sick leave certificate on the FSS website.

The need for verification

The benefit is calculated according to the standard scheme: the insured person presents a document for payment to the employer, who plays the role of the policyholder, who is entrusted with the obligation to accrue the benefit within 10 days and pay it with the next salary at the same time. In the future, the amount is credited to social insurance and the fund covers expenses, and the employer plays a transit role. In the case of fictitious sick leave, the chain breaks with the employer, since the FSS check does not recognize the document and imposes penalties.

How to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate depends on the type of fake:

• the document was made in a “counterfeit coin” workshop by applying counterfeit security elements;
• the form is genuine, stolen at some stage in transit to medical institutions or production by a certified manufacturer.

Verification of the authenticity of a sick leave certificate can be initiated by employees of the accounting department, the personnel department and the internal security service of the employer's organization by contacting the Social Insurance Fund at the place of registration and the medical institution that issued the suspicious document.

Official website of the FSS for checking certificates of incapacity for work

The FSS portal can be found at: portal.fss.ru. However, this site will only help you calculate the amount of benefits payable to the employee, but will not allow you to check your sick leave online.

In order to check the sick leave certificate online at the FSS, you need to go to the official website of the department via the link fss.ru and download the database of invalid forms (for example, stolen or lost).

You will be introduced to the nuances of calculating and paying sick leave by materials and messages prepared by specialists on our website:

• “The employee is late in reporting to the doctor—should I pay for sick leave?”;
• Payment of sick leave for a domestic injury;
• Sick leave pay after dismissal.

Online check

The easiest way to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate is to use the social insurance database online.

On the FSS official website, sick leave checks are carried out through the following step-by-step actions:

• go to the tab regarding information for legal entities and individuals - employers;
• go to the tab of invalid forms of disability sheets;
• the system will automatically prompt you to download the information that needs to be done;
• the data will appear in Excel format;
• how to enter sick leave by number - you must enter the first 9 digits.

If the document is fake, the sick leave verification system will immediately display it. The only drawback of the system when searching for counterfeit paper media is that fund specialists update the database once every 30 days, and it takes 10 days to make a decision on payment and accrual of funds.

If there is no desire to constantly download updated databases and there are a large number of suspicious entities in the enterprise, it is recommended to use the online search mode for stolen and disappeared forms posted on special websites by regional social insurance offices.

Checking a sick leave certificate by number is carried out in the same way: by entering the first 9 digits of the document and instantly receiving the result (if updates are made).

Where to download the database of invalid certificates of incapacity for work in 2021

Social Insurance regularly updates the database of sick leave certificates that have been lost or stolen.

You can check the sick leave number on the FSS website and download the database in the “Information for employers (forms, reporting, forms)” section and find the line “Invalid sick leave forms.” The database is laid out in Excel format. To find the number you are looking for, you can use the “Find” service and enter the first 9 digits of the code designation of the number of the certificate of incapacity for work.

There is no other way to check sick leave by number online on the department’s website.

At the territorial office of the Social Insurance Fund, checking sick leave by number is also possible (this is provided for in paragraph 7 of Article 59 of the Law “On the Protection of the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation” dated November 21, 2011 No. 323-FZ). To do this, you can contact the branch at the place of registration with a request to check the suspicious document by number, attaching the document itself. The FSS records the numbers of the forms that were received by each medical institution. Consequently, branch employees can determine whether the copy number belongs to the organization that issued it.

Is it possible to fire an employee if an inspection by the Social Insurance Fund reveals a fake sick leave? The answer to this question is in ConsultantPlus. Get trial access to the system and start learning the material for free.

Other ways to check sick leave

Alternative verification methods:

• visual inspection of the document;
• sending an application to the Social Insurance Fund office;
• submitting a formal request to the hospital that issued the document.

Before submitting a request to verify a document, you can independently review the authenticity form. Signs of counterfeiting are shown in the table:

IMPORTANT! This form has the protections described above. The absence of at least one indicates a fake.

Letter to the Social Insurance Fund about checking sick leave if the check on the portal did not produce results (sample)

A request to the Social Insurance Fund to verify sick leave is made in any order and must contain the following information:

• about the policyholder: company name, INN/KPP/registration number in the Social Insurance Fund, legal address and telephone number;
• to whom, by whom and when issued, as well as the number of the certificate of incapacity for work;
• where and how the fund should send the response;
• about applications;
• signature of the head of the company and date of preparation.

The original sick leave certificate must be attached to the application. After verification, the department will return it.

Applications can be made on our website.

Since the FSS has the right to prepare a response within up to 30 days, you can contact a medical organization to check the authenticity of the sick leave. The request form is free. An example of the wording can be found in the Ready-made solution from ConsultantPlus, having received trial access to the system for free.

Why might a check be needed?

It may be necessary to check the electronic certificate of incapacity for work (ELN) in different situations. Today, not all enterprises and medical institutions have the necessary equipment to work with such sick leave.

Therefore, electronic and paper versions of these documents are used simultaneously. The latter are usually checked for authenticity.

The following persons and structures have access to the ENL:

• Social Insurance Fund;
• employer (FSS);
• patient (company employee);
• employee of a medical institution.

Access to electronic sick leave certificates allows you to track all changes, find errors and make the necessary adjustments.

Results

Checking sick leave in the Social Insurance Fund is possible on the official social insurance website, using a regularly updated database of lost forms, or at the territorial authority at the employer’s place of registration by sending an official request. The department does not provide other ways to check sick leave online.

Sources: Federal Law of November 21, 2011 N 323-FZ “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation”

You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

What to do if an employee provides a fake

If the fake is discovered before the benefits are paid, then the employer does not have to take any action. But if the sick leave was paid, then the company has the right to demand reimbursement of the amount paid. But you can deduct no more than 20% of your salary from an employee. If the employee does not have any income from the organization, you can try to recover the balance of the overpayment through the court.

Let us note that forgery of documents provides for criminal liability under Art. 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and if the employee himself participated in the scam, then he can be punished under Art. 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Sanctions for these articles vary - from a fine of 120,000 rubles to imprisonment for up to 2 years. However, the employer has the right not to notify law enforcement agencies about the detected counterfeit if it has not suffered losses. If the fake gets into the FSS, the employer’s officials can contact the police.

Legal documents

• By Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated April 26, 2011 No. 347n
• Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n
• Art. 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
• Art. 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

For what purpose and who can track the status of the BL on the fund portal?

You can check the temporary disability certificate on the Foundation’s website by logging into your personal account. To do this, you will need to know the SNILS number of the insured person or the BL number. The Fund’s web portal provides access to the personal account and operations therein to three categories of users:

1. To the insured person - an employee of the enterprise.
2. Insured - a person who hires workers and makes payments to Social Security: a legal entity or an entrepreneur.
3. Persons who have access to medical and social expertise.

Note. Each category of users has a separate entrance to their Personal Account, which is determined by its status.

Insured persons can check information for the following purposes:

• checking the status of the BC;
• viewing benefit accrual;
• printout of the calculation certificate.

In addition, the insured has the opportunity to view all his BL and benefits for them.

An employer may need to check the status of a temporary disability certificate to ensure the validity of the document, as well as to certify the correctness of the data on payments that were transferred to the Social Insurance Fund.