Is it possible to close sick leave retroactively and what is the basis for closure?

During my vacation I went to St. Petersburg. She got sick there, went to the clinic, and opened a sick leave sheet.

When I returned home, I was not yet completely healthy. I needed to recover at home.

What to do with sick leave? Is it possible to close it in another city? What to do in such a situation? In this article I will answer these questions and highlight the following important points:

Is it possible not to cover sick leave?
Closing procedure;
Legality of closing early;
Where is the procedure performed?
Deadlines for submitting sick leave;
Employer notification.

general information

A sick leave is an official form of strict reporting!

As soon as a person falls ill, he must visit or call a doctor. At the appointment, a certificate of incapacity for work is issued. It must be provided to the employer.

Articles on the topic (click to view)

Is sick leave considered income?
What to do if you have extended sick leave for pregnancy and childbirth
What to do if your employer does not accept electronic sick leave
What to do if you are not given sick leave
How many days does it take for sick leave to arrive from the Social Insurance Fund?
What to do if the place of work is not indicated on the sick leave
Are sick leave taken into account when calculating maternity leave?

This information is not a secret. But at the same time, not everyone knows that the certificate of incapacity for work must be closed in a timely manner. This must be done in accordance with the rules. Below this process will be described in as much detail as possible.

Responsibility of the employee for the sheet retroactively

As indicated, the form refers to strict reporting documentation. For this reason, if such an act is forged, the guilty person may be held accountable. Moreover, this rule applies not only to the doctor who issued the certificate, but also to the employee who used the fraudulent ballot.

In particular, Federal Law No. 255 indicates that if a falsification of this act is detected, the employer is given the opportunity to demand the return of funds paid to the employee. These funds are withheld from the person’s earnings.

In this case, it is provided that the deduction can be about 1/5 of the citizen’s salary. The company management also has the right:

apply to a judicial authority and collect the debt;
demand recovery of other losses caused by the fictitious form.

In a situation where the employee was involved in the production of such a document independently, the penalties specified in the provisions of norm 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation may be applied to him. This article reflects the following sanctions:

arrest for six months;
up to a couple of years in prison.

Is it necessary to close?

If you do not close the sick leave issued by the doctor, it will not be paid!

This is not the only trouble you may encounter. Other consequences include:

Deterioration of relationships with colleagues;
The employer will want to conduct an independent examination;
The medical professional will face problems. He will be accused of not closing the sheet and not entering the data into the reporting system;
The form will be cancelled, and a mark will be placed on it indicating that the person has violated the hospital regime.

What happens if you don’t come to see a doctor while on sick leave?

attending physicians of medical organizations;
paramedics and dentists with permission from the territorial FSS of Russia;
practicing doctors of research institutes and specialized clinics with permission from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

The current rules for issuing sick leave contain information that its closure must be carried out exclusively in the institution in which it was opened, i.e. where the employee went at the first sign of illness. This fact is not mandatory if during the treatment the citizen was examined or observed by more than one specialist or was hospitalized in several hospitals.

Closing procedure

These documents are opened and closed at the patient’s place of residence. We are not talking about permanent registration, but also about temporary registration.

Medical institutions are obliged to accept a patient, even not at his place of registration!

A person may be in a certain city on vacation. He carries with him a standard medical insurance policy. Accordingly, if problems arise, he can seek help from a nearby medical facility. Opens sick leave. But then the time comes to return and the question arises: is it possible to close the list already in your city?

Expert opinion

Novikov Oleg Tarasovich

Legal consultant with 7 years of experience. Specializes in criminal law. Member of the Bar Association.

The established rules of the Ministry of Health stipulate that if a person began treatment in one clinic and continued in another, the sheet can be closed where the patient recovered. In such a situation, a mark indicating the transfer to another institution is placed in the document and a closing date is set.

When you arrive home, you should visit a doctor. He will conduct an examination and decide whether to continue treatment by opening a new sick leave or to end therapy. Here are a few related rules regarding this issue:

If the employee was treated in a hospital, the certificate of incapacity for work is closed here.
If the doctor prescribes a course of rehabilitation, the document is closed by the therapist with whom the person will be observed.
If the patient was treated by a highly specialized specialist, if he was the one who opened the sheet, he is required to close it.
The document is issued on average for 15 days. If this time is not enough, the specialist independently contacts the commission to extend the sheet for another three weeks.
In case of infectious pathology, the closure of the leaf is carried out after a careful examination of the person. A thorough diagnosis is carried out to determine the cause of the problem. Such a rather serious approach is necessary to prevent a person from spreading the infection.
If sufficiently long-term therapy has been carried out, the doctor prescribes a special strict reporting form. It is needed in order to open and extend another certificate of incapacity for work.
If a person works in several places at the same time, he must take out the appropriate number of sick leaves. In the lines where the manager is written, you need to indicate the part-time employer.

These provisions are regulated by an official order of the Ministry of Health of 2011!

Documents for closing

To close a certificate of incapacity for work, you will need to prepare the following documents:

Passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation;
Outpatient card;
TIN;
Address;
Information about the employer - legal form of the enterprise and official name.

This information is entered into the sick leave. Information of this kind must be provided as accurately as possible. There should be no errors or corrections on the sick leave. Otherwise, you will have to assemble a medical commission and start the process of re-issuing paperwork. If the defects are minor, corrections can be made. But this must be done in accordance with established rules.

Sheet closing operation

When closing the sheet, the doctor will perform the following sequential actions:

Examine the patient carefully.
Write down the final diagnosis in the chart.
The list of incapacity for work is closed.
The deadline for renewal and the date of return to work are written.
The doctor's signature is affixed.

After this, the patient must go to the sick leave office. Here, the stamp of the clinic in the official and usual triangular shape is affixed to the sheet.

General Closing Rules

The general procedure for opening and closing sick leave is regulated by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development No. 624n dated June 29, 2011, as amended by Order No. 31n dated January 24, 2012 of the same department. Who can cover sick leave? In accordance with the orders, medical institutions of a state, municipal or private nature can open and close a document if they have the appropriate license.

The persons carrying out the procedure directly may be:

attending physicians in inpatient and outpatient medical institutions;
paramedics and dentists;
practicing doctors at research institutes and clinics.

According to the general rules, where sick leave is required to be closed in the institution where it was opened, with the exception of the following special cases:

hospitalization of the patient as a result of deterioration in health during the period of treatment in an outpatient clinic;
discharge of the patient from an inpatient facility for home follow-up treatment at the place of residence;
when undergoing primary treatment in an inpatient facility of one profile and changing to another as a result of a clinical examination.

The sick leave was issued by one organization, and closed by another, possibly when the patient’s treating institution sent it to another territorial region to continue therapy. But, if, while in the territory of another populated district, the patient opened a ballot not at his place of residence, then closing the sick leave in another clinic, even at the place of his own registration, is not allowed.

Closing sick leave early

Any doctor can discharge a patient ahead of schedule at his request!

To carry out this process, you will need to obtain a written refusal from the client. The doctor has no right to refuse a request to leave sick leave before the due date.

All he can do is make the patient aware of the consequences of the decision. The patient also receives a statement with the results of tests and examinations completed. It is necessary for further outpatient treatment.

Prohibitions on closing early

Despite permission to close the sheet before the due date, there are situations when the doctor does not have the right to do this. It is prohibited to close the document if a viral infection is detected in the patient. In the presence of diseases that can harm others, it is also necessary to treat the patient until complete recovery.

This is important to know: Can you be fired for taking sick leave to care for a child?

If a person with such pathologies insists on going to work earlier than expected, the doctor may refer him for additional examination. If a satisfactory result is obtained, a decision on discharge is made.

Closing a sheet retroactively

Modern legislation does not prohibit closing the sheet on weekends and retroactively. But such a relaxation applies to certain categories of citizens:

Pregnant;
Employees are raising children with disabilities or HIV infection;
Those who have children under 7 years of age with severe pathologies - tuberculosis or oncology.

Many people wonder whether the doctor on duty has the right to close the sheet. The answer to this question can be given in the negative. An exception is the situation when the attending physician is on duty.

Is it possible to start sick leave on a day off?

On the trail. day I called the local police officer from the clinic. We waited for the doctor until 18.30!! (from 08.00). They didn’t wait, we went to the hospital ourselves, since the condition had deteriorated sharply, we couldn’t knock it down, the child was swollen and in general the horror that had begun, I didn’t even have time to be sick, I already had to do something urgently with the child. I was admitted for PAYMENT to my native village, :wife: the child was examined and the patient was discharged. To the question “how to take sick leave on the weekend?” everyone made a “booth face” - no one knows like :009: (and the answer is “more likely no than yes, because their sick leave receipts must be dated, and if I had waited for the doctor to call, then they would have written them out retroactively impossible, definitely not). I don’t understand, am I the only one who works shifts, including on weekends? :009:Somehow this issue must be resolved.. Or do they really not know, and should they ask the HR department? Tell me, please, who knows?

phoenix***

06-03-2008, 00:25

ALL clinics, both adults and children, work WITHOUT days off, on Saturday and Sunday there is a doctor on duty who goes on calls throughout the area. You should have called the apartment help from 9.00 to 12-14.00 and a doctor would come to you and write out a sick leave. I know this for sure, because I worked as a local therapist in a clinic, the rules in city clinics are the same everywhere, if your call is not accepted, go complain to the head of your department. It’s strange that the emergency room didn’t tell you anything about this...

Thank you very much for the answer!!! :flower: I no longer thought that anyone would respond. I worked on Saturday, but didn’t even know about Sunday! The local police officer repeated to me many times that the doctor is on duty only on Saturday, and on Sunday to call the ambulance. It can’t be that only our p-ka is so unique, they’re messing something up there IMHO. You really need to go to the manager.

Yes, only on weekends you need to have time to get your bearings in the morning and call, I myself took a day off, went to the clinic, and somehow called at home.

When the child was 1.5, she called the doctor. Now we are 5, we needed a doctor on Saturday, I called from 9 to 16 - silence. :( On Monday the local police officer said that there have been no doctors on duty in our regiment for 2 years.

In our clinic, the doctor on duty works on both Saturday and Sunday, and you can call him at any time. I only recently found out about this, by the way, from the emergency room.

Document appearance

Expert opinion

Novikov Oleg Tarasovich

Legal consultant with 7 years of experience. Specializes in criminal law. Member of the Bar Association.

The closed sheet for temporary disability is a strict reporting form. This is an A4 sheet. It must be filled out completely, the renewal columns must be crossed out, and the date of return to work must be entered.

The reliability of the paper is important. It must have a watermark on it to be checked for counterfeiting. The document is signed by the attending physician. Two seals must be affixed - triangular and official. After closing, the sheet must be taken to the accounting department. Here it is carefully checked and, if everything is in order, paid.

Delivery deadlines

If a person is on sick leave for a long time, he can receive the required compensation in installments. To do this, he must provide the relevant document on time. The benefit is assigned 10 days after the person applies and is transferred on the day the salary is received.

If the certificate of incapacity for work was not provided within the required time frame, the employer can pay compensation within six months. If the sheet is not provided during this time, the money may also be transferred much later. The main condition here is the presence of a good reason.

Employer Notice

The employee decides independently whether or not to notify the manager about going to work. There is no law regulating this issue. An obligation of this kind is present only if another person temporarily performed duties for the patient.

In addition, a warning will be required if there is any doubt that difficulties will arise on the due payment date. At some enterprises, large amounts of compensation must be prepared in advance.

Close sick leave retroactively

Legally, a certificate of incapacity for work is a document of strict accountability. Printed only at the SpetsBlank printing house in Moscow. Done on special paper with a large number of degrees of protection:

Watermarks with the emblem of the FSS of the Russian Federation.
Does not react to ultraviolet light - the paper remains dark.
The original individual number of each form of 12 digits.
Barcode that corresponds to the number.
The number under the barcode is embossed.
QR code.
There is microfiber - blue is distinct, pink and light green are faintly visible.
Typographic text is not visible in a money checking machine (with infrared radiation).
In some fields, the lines and cells are not solid, but raster (dotted).
In the very black line above the words “Doctor’s signature” there is microtext: “certificate of incapacity for work.”

All forms that the medical institution receives are taken into account. If the sheet is damaged, it is written off, and the sick leave number and the reason for the damage to the document are entered in a special journal.

When issuing a certificate of incapacity for work, the data is entered into 4 journals. Each completed document is identified by a serial number. The accuracy of the information is verified. Every year, Roszdravnadzor increasingly conducts random inspections of all medical institutions.

Medical falsifiers and lawbreakers are punished with heavy fines and dismissed from their jobs.

Who has the right to close sick leave

Only doctors who have received a medical license have the right to provide and close sick leave. The rule is enshrined in Order of the Ministry of Social Development of Russia 624n dated June 29, 2011

. The list of specialists with this right includes:

The law also establishes a list of specialists who cannot issue a document. In Order of the Ministry of Social Development of Russia 624n dated June 29, 2011

year it is said that the following do not have the right to provide and close out sick leave:

emergency medical care organizations;
organizing blood transfusions;
reception departments of hospital institutions;
balneological clinics and mud baths;
medical organizations of a special type (centers for medical prevention, disaster medicine, forensic medical examination bureaus);
healthcare institutions for supervision in the field of consumer rights protection and human well-being.

How to open and close sick leave

According to the law, sick leave is filled out during pregnancy, inpatient treatment (hospital), outpatient treatment (at home), and in some cases during sanatorium treatment.

Sick leave is opened in the following cases:

sick employees in all areas where temporary disability is paid;
during pregnancy and childbirth;
everyone who is subject to compulsory social insurance, including hazardous work, life insurance and disability insurance;
those who become ill or injured within a month after dismissal.

The clinic doctor opens a certificate of incapacity for work from the date of application. If the patient applied after he had completed his working day, then the next day is considered the beginning of the sick leave. It usually closes in 3 – 5 days. At the appointed time, the patient must come for an examination or, if it gets worse, then call a doctor at home. If an ambulance is called, the doctor issues a certificate stating that he visited the patient, describes the symptoms and lists the procedures performed and medications administered. If the condition worsens, the sick leave is extended. The maximum period of paid sick leave is 60 days. If the injury, illness, or operation is serious, then after 60 days the VC makes a decision to extend the certificate of incapacity for work to 120 days.

The doctor is responsible for the accuracy of the information on the certificate of incapacity for work. He has no right to make serious decisions without permission.

Illegal retroactive receipt of sick leave

Not in all situations it is possible to legally obtain a certificate of incapacity for work. This process is complex and requires documentation confirming the disease. A fictitious ballot is issued in the following cases:

you need a vacation, but the company’s management refuses it;
the person cannot, due to certain circumstances, visit the place of work;
the possibility of using punishment against a citizen for absenteeism;
the presence of conflicting relationships, as a result of which the employee’s financial liability is established.

It is also possible to apply for sick leave in the case when a person does not want to work for a couple of weeks before terminating relations with the organization.

Can a paramedic issue a sick leave?

The certificate of incapacity for work is issued only by the attending physician. All employees of first aid stations, emergency rooms, and paramedics do not have the right to draw up this document. They can only issue a certificate confirming that the patient came with complaints on such and such a date. Now there are no places where it is impossible to contact an employer or a larger medical institution. Therefore, the paramedic is obliged to notify the place of work or the doctor of the nearest clinic about the victim’s request. The sick leave will be opened. If the situation is ambiguous, then the decision to issue sick leave is made by the medical commission after the patient is able to see a therapist. There are cases when a person is sent on a business trip to a “dead” place, and there he ends up with a local paramedic.

In this case, you must: notify the management or accounting department at your place of work about your temporary disability and send a fax through the medical center (make a call) and warn.

If it is impossible to open a sick leave at all, and the fact of illness is undeniable, then the management either does not take into account the time off, or, according to an internal order, pays the amount that the person would have received with sick leave. What management does depends on internal regulations and relations with employees.

This is important to know: Is the diagnosis written on the sick leave certificate?

Whether sick leave can be opened retroactively or whether sick leave can be closed retroactively is indicated in the Instructions of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation in the document “Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development on the procedure for issuing sick leave.” Each doctor acts strictly according to this document. A special medical commission (MC) decides whether to close or open a certificate of incapacity retroactively. The doctor himself cannot decide this alone. He is obliged to open the sheet on the day of application and close it on the day of inspection.

The doctor knows when and how to backdate sick leave. The maximum allowed period is usually 1 day. If the commission decides that an illness or injury requires an earlier date, then a certificate of incapacity for work can be issued on an earlier date, but no more than 3-5 days in advance.

You have the right to ask whether it is possible to apply for sick leave retroactively. The doctor is obliged to explain to you what is best in your situation. But rest assured that the vast majority of doctors will only tell you what you can realistically expect within the law.

Is it possible to close sick leave a day later?

If it is proven that the doctor is at fault for the deterioration of the citizen’s condition, he will be held accountable. According to Article 2 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, forced labor is prohibited in the Russian Federation. An employer does not have the right to recall an employee from sick leave. Violation of established standards is fraught with fines. Their size is regulated by Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The amount of recovery in accordance with the provisions of the regulatory legal act will be 5,000 rubles. for officials and 50,000 rubles. for organizations. Additionally, the company may be deprived of the right to work for up to 90 days. The need to submit sick leave is regulated by Federal Law No. 255 of December 29, 2006. However, a specific official is not designated in the regulatory legal act. This includes the following information:

date of issue;
sheet number, automatically entered on forms according to the uniform numbering of the Social Insurance Fund.

Placing a doctor's stamp and a general hospital stamp (at the reception desk or a special office for issuing such documents).

Read more: Documents for registration of single mother status

After affixing all the necessary stamps, the employee can submit the document to the place of work. If, when checking a sick leave certificate, inaccuracies are discovered, the employee has the right to contact a medical institution to correct the errors, where he cannot be denied such a procedure. In what cases is the certificate of incapacity for work closed? Sick leave can be closed in the following cases:

Upon recovery of the employee himself, as well as a relative or child, during whose illness he was granted sick leave for care.

Mom of a toddler 12/07/2011, 01:57 No, the insurance office will not stamp your sick leave. Discuss with the doctor, for example, our insurance company works until 17, and the doctor until 19, etc., calmly, after a day or two, Kadicha stamped 12/07/2011, 03:09 Thanks for the answers, but I’m not discharging the child, but I want to close the sick leave. Maksimochka 12/11/2011, 00:35 Discuss with the doctor, our insurance, for example, works until 17, and the doctor until 19, etc., calmly after a day or two they put a stamp. Well, they don’t do it with us. For reasons that mom has to go to work on sick leave, apparently. mangust 12/11/2011, 10:31 pm In a similar situation, I honestly said that I was at work on the appointed day. They closed it for me on the day I went to see the doctor, they said that they couldn’t do otherwise, they only close it on the day you go to see the doctor. They extended it for me another day and closed it.

This article will not only help you figure out how to close a sick leave

sheet on the new law, but will also shed light on other pressing issues related to
the design of the ballot
. Thanks to this material, you will learn when to go to work, to whom to give the certificate of incapacity for work, and what to do for those who find themselves in another city or region during illness.

Punishment for issuing a fake sick leave

From time to time, every employee wonders how to take a day off and where to get retroactive sick leave. We strongly advise against using fake sick leave certificates that are sold through advertisements. There are so many degrees of protection that scammers cannot create. And people fall under the article very often. The legislator provides for a wide range of penalties for forgery and use of falsified documents. We recommend you study! Follow the link:

An employee may fall under Art. 324. for using deliberately forged documents.

The simplest punishment is dismissal or disciplinary punishment: Article 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. It all depends on the employer.

If the check is carried out by Roszdravnadzor, they will find out in court whether you knew that the document was fake or not:

If you are a victim of circumstances and believe the scammers, you will get off with a fine, the amount of which is determined individually (usually, this is the amount paid by the employer for sick leave).
It’s a little worse if the employee goes under Article 238 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, in conjunction with Art. 324 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Then you will face a minimum fine of 2 salaries.
If you conspired with the seller of fake sick leave, used fake documents yourself and contributed to the spread of counterfeit documents, then a criminal case will be initiated under Art. 327, 324, 35 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Article 35 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation aggravates all acts to the level of a criminal group. Therefore, the punishment follows up to imprisonment.

The only justification for your actions can only be that you were really sick, but did not call a doctor, but decided to buy a sick leave through the Internet. For example, they believed that it was not a fake. But even in this case, the court will take into account all your characteristics and the circumstances of the case. If you simply handed over a false document to management, the fine could be about 10 thousand rubles.

A doctor who signs and seals a deliberately false document bears even greater responsibility:

He will most likely be fired and fined an annual salary (minimum).
If the printing, sale, and issuance of fake sick leave are put on stream, then a prison sentence is guaranteed for all members of the group. Everyone has heard about the high-profile case of fake sick leave in Russia.
There are doctors who open a certificate of incapacity for work on an original form for completely healthy people for a certain fee. This act also entails punishment, for example, under Art. 190 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – bribe.

Expert opinion

Novikov Oleg Tarasovich

Legal consultant with 7 years of experience. Specializes in criminal law. Member of the Bar Association.

As of 2021, more than 1.5 million criminal cases have already been initiated. Inspections are carried out unexpectedly in medical institutions and by employers themselves in companies.

Remember that a real sick leave is a document of strict accountability, made on stamped paper. Only doctors can open it. All actions of the physician are strictly regulated by the Registration Instructions.

Since July 2021, electronic certificates of incapacity for work have appeared. Now all data is transferred from the clinic or hospital directly to the employer. The patient can choose in which format to take sick leave – electronic or paper.

Never trust advertisements and websites that promise a real certificate of incapacity for work retroactively. This doesn't happen.

What is meant by closing sick leave?

Feeling unwell is a reason to consult a doctor who will make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment. Not every visit to a medical institution entails the issuance of an official sick leave. To obtain a form, you must have grounds in the form of existing symptoms that require removal from work and immediate treatment. A sick leave can only be opened for a patient who has an official place of work, that is, is employed. Unemployed citizens do not receive a ballot, because its purpose is to receive compensation for sick days, and it is awarded only to those who make contributions to the Social Insurance Fund.

But receiving sick leave does not mean having a reason to pay for it. According to legislative norms, only those citizens who have not had any recorded violations during treatment in a hospital or at home, and have also closed their certificate of incapacity for work, can count on payment. By closing the bulletin it is meant that it is no longer maintained and the doctor makes a note that he allows the patient to begin his direct work duties. During the entire period of illness, the citizen actually falls under the full responsibility of the medical worker; he prescribes his treatment and daily routine. The patient must follow all advice and recommendations of the attending physician. Until the doctors close the form, a person does not have the right to go to work and be considered a healthy person, and the employer, accordingly, cannot allow the employee to work without a closed form. You can also count on payment only after the form is completed by the doctor.

Consequences of an unclosed document

The main consequence is non-payment of benefits.

If the sick leave is not closed for a good reason, then the employee can complete the paperwork after he begins his work duties.

Sick leave can also be paid during vacation and even within 30 days after termination of the employment contract.

What is the maximum duration of sick leave? Read here.

How to get a duplicate sick leave certificate if lost? Detailed information in this article.

Timely completion of sick leave will ensure proper payment of benefits. The employee must carefully monitor the execution of the document and thoroughly check the information entered in the medical institution.

A small mistake may cause the document to be reissued, which will require convening an additional medical commission.

Problems with payments and other controversial situations are best resolved with the support of an experienced lawyer.

What is the sequence of actions?

It is very easy to obtain a closed document. To do this, you should perform a series of actions that will lead to the logical conclusion of the disease.

This is important to know: How long to keep sick leave in an organization

Outpatients receive certificates of incapacity for work immediately after they are initially opened. But those who are receiving inpatient treatment can receive a document in their hands only in two cases:

The patient recovered and was discharged.
The person was sent for further treatment at home. The bulletin will be closed by the local doctor who observes the patient after discharge.

After the course of treatment has been completed, the patient must:

Submit proof of proof for finalization of the form.
Provide information about your employer. It is important to correctly name the legal name, because if a citizen gives incorrect information, he will not be able to receive payment.

In turn, the doctor must:

Indicate that the patient has recovered and can return to work.
Enter the date you will return to work.
Apply your signature.
Seal the data.
Enter information about the issuance of the form in a special journal.

After all actions have been completed, the ballot will be considered closed and ready to be presented to the employer.

Grounds for closing a certificate of incapacity for work

In order to make a sick leave closed, you need reasons.

Reasons for taking this action may be:

Recovery of a citizen.
The end of the maximum allotted period for recovery.
The patient's request.
Serious violations of hospital regulations.

The optimal basis for discharge is recovery.

A person undergoes a course of treatment and gets results, and then goes back to work healthy, full of strength and energy. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Sometimes, due to an incorrect diagnosis or complications during illness, it may happen that the time allotted for recovery has expired, and the person still feels unwell.

Legislative acts have approved lists of diseases defining the maximum time allowed for treatment. These periods are calculated based on medical practice. Generally speaking, the length of ballots depends on who opens them. A doctor can issue a form for a maximum of 15 days, but a paramedic can only issue a form for ten. In case of surgical interventions or injuries, fractures, we are talking about completely different calculations. Whatever the maximum permitted period, it can be extended by contacting a medical commission.

At the request of the patient, the document can also be closed. Such requests are made if there is a significant need to go to the workplace or other insurmountable circumstances. The doctor stops further treatment only if he believes that the turning point in the disease has already arrived and the recovery process is underway. He is also obliged to assess the degree of danger of an untreated patient to others; if we are talking about an airborne disease, then the patient will not be able to complete treatment ahead of schedule.

The bulletin can also be spontaneously closed in the event of serious violations of hospital discipline. For example, a citizen refuses to undergo a comprehensive examination or does not want to go for a medical examination.

Special cases of closure

There are situations when you need to stop being sick urgently. An example would be a sharply identified interesting business trip that relates to the specifics of the enterprise’s activities and is personally interesting to the employee. If this becomes known on a day off, but the bulletin is not closed, then difficulties arise when arranging a business trip for an employee with reimbursement of travel allowances, since according to the law he is sick.

Is it possible to close sick leave on Saturday? It is possible if a medical institution is open. As a rule, clinics are open on Saturdays and patients are seen by doctors on duty. Can another doctor cover sick leave? Of course, otherwise why is he on duty? Closing sick leave on Sunday is more problematic, since in most cases clinics are not open.

Closing is possible at any time the medical institution that opened the document is open if there is a doctor on duty. The specialist is not obliged to do this, but it is unknown how the attending physician will react to such a request for early “recovery”.

A similar situation of urgently going to work can occur on any day of illness. Is it possible to close a sick leave the next day after opening? No medical document regulates the period of issue.

It just became a habit for doctors to issue documents for at least three days, and to receive them from patients.

Is it possible to close sick leave later than the specified date? You can come and collect, but the closing date, unless the doctor provides otherwise, will correspond to the appointed and ignored date of the visit with a note about violation of hospital rules in case of absence without a good reason.

If you do not close the sick leave on time, then you need to receive it and deliver it to the employer in any case. This will make it possible to justify absence from work, and will ensure payments from the moment of violation in the calculation based on the minimum wage in the worst case. Ideally, the administration of the enterprise will create a commission, by decision of which the mark on the incident of violation will be canceled and funding for the certificate of incapacity for work will be restored in full.

Is it possible to close a certificate of incapacity for work retroactively?

Some people want to close the sick leave retroactively, but is this possible?

Let's start with how to make sure that a medical document is issued retroactively. For example, a person fell ill and felt so bad that he simply could not get out of bed, so he went to the doctor only a few days later. Can he apply for sick leave retroactively? Of course, this is impossible, because the doctor issues a certificate only if there is documentary evidence, and not based on unfounded allegations. But if the patient bothered to call a doctor at home or called an ambulance, then he can well count on such registration.

It is possible to close sick leave retroactively only in a number of legally stipulated cases.

These include the following points:

Issuing a certificate to a pregnant woman who is going on maternity leave. Maternity leave is issued with a certificate of incapacity for work and is issued in advance. The gynecologist observing the pregnant woman, upon reaching a certain period, issues her a bulletin. It can last from 140 days or more, depending on the health of the mother and fetus.
A citizen has a disabled child who is under 15 years of age or a minor diagnosed with HIV.
An employee arranges care for a seriously ill child who has been diagnosed with cancer or tuberculosis.

Other cases do not allow you to take sick leave retroactively.

What happens if you don’t close your sick leave?

The absence of marks on the completion of treatment and permission to work does not allow the employer to:

Count days of absence as sickness.
Place a note of incapacity for work on your time sheet.
Calculate compensation payments.

In fact, the employer will be obliged to give the employee absenteeism and deprive him of payments for missed days. Absenteeism is a reason for dismissal, which the employer has the right to apply to the employee.

The medical worker who opened the ballot is personally responsible for each form issued. He also ensures that the patient shows up for appointments and closes the document in a timely manner. If the course of action is disrupted, then the doctor has the right to cancel the certificate of incapacity for work by making the appropriate mark in his copy. It will not be possible to restore the document later, and the citizen will have to worry about where to get a supporting document for his absence from the workplace.

So, it will not be possible to take sick leave retroactively if there are no listed reasons. And the absence of a closure mark will lead to serious troubles with the employer.

Expert opinion

Novikov Oleg Tarasovich

Legal consultant with 7 years of experience. Specializes in criminal law. Member of the Bar Association.

Consequences of not closing sick leave

Having missed the date assigned for medical supervision without a good reason, many people think about whether it is possible not to close the sick leave at all? Unclosed sick leave has consequences:

is not a reason for absence from work;
does not give the right to accrue temporary disability benefits.

On a formal basis, an employer can consider absenteeism as absenteeism, followed by dismissal under the relevant article. Let’s say management is willing to compromise with an employee if he hasn’t taken sick leave, what should the administration do?

Looking for options:

It is possible to retroactively assign eights only if this cannot be established through further checks.
Write a vacation application retroactively, and who is to blame for not issuing vacation pay?
Apply for vacation at your own expense, but time is limited throughout the year. For extensions due to special circumstances, supporting documents are required.

If the enterprise does not have a higher organization, then somehow it can be solved. But why create a problem from scratch, punishing yourself by not receiving the due payments on a temporary disability certificate? This is what will happen if you don’t close your sick leave.

Late attendance at a medical institution to receive a document is not punishable. Medical workers will make a note about the violation of the regime and close it with the date of the scheduled visit, or continue treatment with a note about the violation, which can be easily canceled by the employer. This is how open and closed sick leave differ from each other.