In this article, qualified specialists will give complete answers to questions regarding filling out sick leave. Every employer needs to know this, because a correctly filled out sick leave certificate will help reimburse the worker for all the money spent on treatment during the period of incapacity.
What functions does a document such as a sick leave perform?
Experts say that the certificate of incapacity for work was invented and developed for a reason. It performs two important functions:
- A financial document (this was discussed earlier in this article), which is the basis for the assignment of disability benefits and its payment.
- A reporting document that confirms and certifies the fact of release from work of an employee due to his disability.
It should be remembered that a sick citizen can take several such documents at once to confirm the fact of incapacity for work in several organizations in which he works (for example, on the basis of a main employment contract and a part-time contract).
How to fill out a certificate of incapacity for work with an extension?
For those who did not have enough time to recover, the law provides for a rule according to which sick leave can be extended. The procedure consists of closing the previous ballot and opening the next one and has its own nuances. The second certificate of incapacity for work must be filled out , while some data in it remains unchanged, others change.
What is indicated in the first, what in the second?
In the first ballot, it is necessary to indicate with a tick whether this is the primary document or its duplicate. Then, on both sheets, fill in the columns with the name of the medical institution and its address, the patient’s personal data, and the name of the organization in which he works. The last name and position of the treating doctor, disease code, and outpatient card number are also identical for both sheets.
The first bulletin indicates the date the patient applied to the medical institution. She will also be the first day of sick leave. In the second form, the date of application will be the day the sick leave was extended.
The second document has the line “Continuation of the sheet”, in which you need to write down the number of the previous ballot. There are columns such as “Other” and “Sheet issued”. In the first of them, code 31 is written, meaning the continuation of the illness; in the second, the number of the continuation of the hospital form is written.
More details about codes for sick leave are described here.
Below you will see a sample of filling out a certificate of incapacity for work with a continuation:
Below you will see a sample continuation of a sick leave certificate:
It is important to know about filling out the length of service on a sick leave certificate, about stamps and about the rules for calculating and filling out sick leave certificates from the minimum wage.
What marks will indicate that the BC has already been issued?
The issuance of a continuation of sick leave will be indicated by the line “Other” , in which code 31 will be written. The line “Continuation of the certificate of incapacity for work” is also filled in, where the number of the first bulletin is entered.
By whom and in what cases is a certificate of incapacity issued?
A sick leave certificate is usually issued by the medical institution where the employee was treated. This happens in the following cases:
- Outpatient treatment of employee illnesses (injuries, poisonings, other painful conditions):
- up to 15 calendar days issued by the responsible medical officer;
- beyond this period - by a medical commission.
- Maternity leave is received by an employee during the thirty-week period of pregnancy - the duration is 140 calendar days (70 before childbirth and 70 after it), given:
- obstetrician-gynecologist;
- family doctor or general practitioner;
- paramedic
- Caring for a sick family member - sick leave is issued by the sick person’s attending physician:
- for a period of up to 3 days – under outpatient treatment conditions;
- for a period of up to 7 days - according to the decision of the VKK, depending on the severity of the disease.
Since this document is issued mainly by a medical institution or its employee, the first part of it is filled out there, and the remaining parts of the form are already filled out either by the employer himself or by the person responsible for issuing sick leave.
Is it possible to fill out a sick leave form using a computer?
Indeed, it will not be recognized as an error if the form of this document is filled out using a computer - letter No. 17-03-09/06-3841P FSS (dated October 23, 2014). It is also not a violation of the general rules for filling out a sick leave form and combining handwritten text with computer typing. For example, if the initial part of the form is filled out by hand by an employee of a medical institution using a capillary pen with black ink, and the subsequent columns are filled out by the employer using a computer.
Prospects for sick leave
The Social Insurance Fund strives to maximize automation of processes and reduce the role of employers in paying sick leave. The pilot project, covering several regions (20 in 2021), eliminates the need for HR or accountants to calculate benefits. The sample for filling out a certificate of incapacity for work is the same as in other regions.
2016 was marked by further refinement of electronic sick leave certificates (3 regions are participating). From 2021, the opportunity to issue an electronic version rather than a paper version will be available in all regions. In this situation, employees do not need to carry documents from one organization to another. Employers and the Social Insurance Fund receive information via the Internet. Although online interaction will be limited by the availability of software from medical institutions and employers. The project is currently assessed as successful.
Is it necessary to indicate the patient’s specific diagnosis on the form?
In the current year 2021, the diagnosis does not fit into the sick leave form. For this purpose there is a special column “Cause of disability”. It is filled out using a specially designed two-digit digital code. These digital codes must necessarily correspond to the basis on which this document is issued to the sick employee:
- “01” – disease;
- “02” – injury;
- “03” – quarantine.
Such precautions and coding of the employee’s diagnosis are associated with guaranteed compliance with medical confidentiality.
Sick leave form in 2021
The form of the current certificate of incapacity for work is thoroughly protected from counterfeiting. Firstly, special paper, watermarks, microtext, etc. are used, which are too expensive to counterfeit. Secondly, the forms are subject to strict accountability; their movement is recorded in logs of received blank documents, issued sick leave, and damaged papers. An accountant can check the authenticity of a document brought by an employee using a banknote detector.
The form of the certificate of incapacity for work has not changed since 2011. The sample sick leave certificate for 2021 allows for more deviations from the design rules than 5 years ago. The employer's representative should remember: for the Social Insurance Fund, the authenticity of the document and its evidentiary value in the event of an insured event are important. If in doubt, it is better to once again make sure of the legal purity of the submitted paper by checking with the registry of the medical institution about the presence of a license and the fact that the certificate was issued. A more detailed investigation is not required - this is not within the competence of the insurer.
In case of disputes, the courts often side with employers. If the error arose through the fault of the clinic, but the insured event is beyond doubt, then, according to judicial practice, the clinic, and not the employer-insurer, should bear responsibility. Similarly, in complex cases of falsification, for example, by bribing a doctor, the FSS, the prosecutor’s office, etc., deal with medical workers, and not the enterprise.
The procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work, approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated June 29, 2011 No. 24n and edited on July 2, 2014, establishes how to fill out the forms. It is advisable to write with a capillary, gel or fountain pen only in black or type data using a special program. A combination of handwritten and printed versions on one sheet of paper is allowed. Moreover, it is even possible to prove the admissibility of a ballpoint pen, although this will have to be done in court.
Almost immediately after the adoption of the strict Procedure, in the same 2011, the FSS published several letters in which it resolved the shortcomings. Here, both the Fund’s employees and the courts are based on the following principle: if the insured event is not disputed and it is clear from the remaining data, then formal requirements are unnecessary. Moreover, if information about the disease or pregnancy can be confirmed in other ways, then the benefit should still be accrued to the patient.
However, there is no point in abusing the humanity of the Russian court: the existing cases are spread over several instances. In this regard, a sample of a completed sick leave certificate in 2021 will help avoid unnecessary proceedings. At the same time, the personnel officer or accountant must assess how much the differences in filling out the fields by the medical institution from the exemplary ones will affect the legal validity of the paper, so as not to send the employee once again for re-registration.
In particular, print clarity is important, but whether it falls within the required margin is not. The absence, for example, of the patient's patronymic, an incorrect date of birth, or an incorrect code for the cause of disability are significant. But the indication instead of the specific specialty of the doctor is simply “treat doctor”, the inaccurate name of the employer in the section for medical institutions, extra spaces, punctuation marks complicate the work of the Foundation, but are allowed by it.
Is the form always stamped?
The fact is that not all employing organizations have stamps in their use, so this point is insignificant, which is confirmed by Federal legislation:
- Federal Law, Law No. 208, Article No. 2, paragraph 7.
- Federal Law, Law No. 14, Article No. 2, paragraph 5.
As for the seals and stamps of a medical organization, they are mandatory. But due to the observance of medical confidentiality, there are seals that do not indicate the profile of the medical institution:
- psychiatric;
- drug treatment;
- Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS.
But this absence of a medical institution’s profile on the seal, as indicated in the relevant documentation, is an exception to the generally accepted rules.
Are there separate rules for an employer when filling out a sick leave form?
The employer has its own rules that must be followed when filling out a sick leave certificate. The main and most important of them is checking the correctness of entering all data by a specialist from a medical institution. If any erroneous entries or inconsistencies with the standard procedure for filling out the form of this document are identified, you will have to request a duplicate of it from the same medical institution where the employee was treated (most often, he himself applies for a duplicate).
Now in more detail about other rules that specifically relate to entering information from the employer into the form of a certificate of incapacity for work:
- The name of the employing organization can be written in two versions (exactly twenty-nine cells are allocated for this), but you cannot go beyond the section:
- complete;
- abbreviated
- In no case should punctuation marks such as quotation marks, commas, exclamation marks, dashes and colons be excluded from the name.
- The employer enters data in the “Date of start of work” column, and the employee of the medical institution enters the data in the “Start work” column.
- You cannot correct clerical errors and mistakes with the help of a proofreader - Procedure, paragraph 65 (Order No. 624n of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated June 29, 2011).
If a mistake is made or incorrect information is entered, the employer must carefully cross out the erroneous entry, after which the correct data is written on the back of the form.
How to fill out a sick leave certificate without errors
Filling out a sick leave certificate: basic rules
The sick leave certificate is issued in accordance with the form approved by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated April 26, 2011 N 347n.
If an employee received sick leave abroad, then, according to clause 7 of Order No. 624n, he needs to apply to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for consular legalization, that is, make a legalized translation of the sick leave. Next, the employee submits the document to the clinic, where the medical commission decides on issuing a sick leave certificate in the form established in the Russian Federation, instead of the one received abroad. What does the employer check on a Russian-style temporary disability certificate?
- who issued the sick leave
Clause 2 of the Procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work clearly lists all categories of medical workers who have the right to issue sick leave: attending physicians of medical organizations; paramedics and dentists, other workers with secondary medical education in some cases - by decision of the executive authority; attending physicians of clinics of research institutions, including clinics of research institutions of prosthetics or prosthetics.
Medical workers of emergency medical services, blood transfusion organizations, emergency departments of hospitals, balneological hospitals and mud baths, special types of medical organizations (for example, disaster medicine, forensic medical examination bureaus, etc.), as well as health care institutions for supervision in the field of protection of rights consumers and human well-being do not issue certificates of incapacity for work. This is indicated in clause 3 of the Procedure for issuing certificates of temporary incapacity for work.
- how the recording was made
Entries on the certificate of incapacity for work are made:
- in black ink in Russian in printed capital letters or using printing devices;
- gel, capillary or fountain pen;
- within the cell boundaries, they should not touch the cell boundaries.
- how much does a stamp cost?
It is necessary to check the compliance of the seal imprint with the name specified in the charter of the medical organization. It is worth remembering that when issuing certificates of incapacity for work in some medical organizations (for example, psychiatric or drug treatment organizations), special seals or stamps may be used without indicating the organization’s profile.
The certificate of incapacity for work has a special place for printing, although the seal may extend beyond its limits, the main thing is that the seal does not fall on the cells of the information field of the form.
- are there any mistakes made?
The certificate of incapacity for work is considered damaged if there are errors in filling out. These errors are not corrected; the medical organization issues a new certificate of incapacity to replace the damaged one.
Algorithm for the employer's actions when receiving a certificate of incapacity for work
Check the section “To be completed by a doctor of a medical organization”
It is necessary to check the employee’s full name, date of birth, date of issue of the certificate and compliance with the rules for filling out the form listed in clause 56 of the Procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work.
The section “To be filled out by a physician of a medical organization” must be filled out without erasures or corrections. There must be a space after the doctor's name; There should be no spaces between the doctor's initials. There should be empty cells between words.
Fill out the “To be completed by the employer” section.
It is important that all entries on the sick leave sheet are clear to read. Entries are made in printed capital letters using a gel, capillary or fountain pen with black ink or using printing devices. All lines of the sick leave sheet are filled strictly from the first cell. Entries must not extend beyond the cells. Spaces are left between words. The employer's seal should not fall on other cells of the sheet, but may extend beyond the specially designated space.
Yulia Busygina, head of accounting training at Kontur.School and presenter of the webinar “Rules for filling out sick leave by an employer,” explains how to fill out a sick leave line by line:
Assign and pay benefits.
Calculate sick leave automatically and without errors
To learn more
Correcting errors in sick leave
When correcting errors made when filling out the “To be filled out by the employer” section, the erroneous entry is carefully crossed out, and in its place the correct entry is made on the back of the form, the correction is confirmed by the entry “corrected to be believed”, the signature and seal of the employer. It is not allowed to correct errors using a corrective or other similar means (clause 65 of the Procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work).
No regulatory act regulates which errors are considered critical. There are errors for which the courts rule that the deviation is permissible (for example, when an entry is made in blue ink). However, to avoid problems, you should still adhere to the general rules.
As practice shows, the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation usually reimburses benefits to the employer if it is clearly clear from the sick leave who was temporarily disabled, when the disability occurred, what organization the person to whom the sick leave was issued is an employee of, what medical institution and which doctor issued the sick leave.
Sick leave calculator
You can calculate sick leave in three steps using a free calculator from the Kontur.Accounting service. Just enter the data from your sick leave, indicate your earnings for the previous two years and get a final table for calculating the amount of sick leave.
