How can an employer fill out a sick leave certificate correctly?

• Paper and electronic sick leave can continue each other
• Registration of sick leave if the employee is employed in several organizations
• The new ENL simplified the procedure for recording days for sick family members

The new procedure for issuing and processing certificates of incapacity for work was approved by Order of the Ministry of Health dated September 1, 2020 No. 925n. We clarified the procedure for extending sick leave, registering sick leave for an employee who is employed in several organizations, and also talked about correcting errors.

Registration of sick leave if the employee is employed in several organizations

The number of certificates of incapacity issued depends on how many insurers the employee is employed by at the time of the onset of incapacity. If there are several policyholders, it is important to consider where the employee worked for the previous two years.

The ELN is issued in one copy, and all employers are informed of its number. If a medical organization issues a BLN, it writes it out for each policyholder. All options are described in clauses 6-8 of the Procedure.

A number of details can be excluded from the electronic sheet that a medical organization generates: the policyholder, the sign of the main or part-time worker, the number of the certificate of incapacity for work at the main place of work. In this case, the paper sheet will not change.

Example

Khvorov A.B. works at Buttercup LLC (main place of work) and at Romashka LLC (part-time job).
In the previous two years I worked there. When filling out the BLN, Khvorov will be issued two certificates of incapacity for work - for LLC “Lutik” at his main place of work and for LLC “Romashka”. On the form for “Romashka” you will have to indicate that Khvorov is a part-time worker and fill in the number of the certificate of incapacity for work at his main place of work.

When forming an ELN, they will issue one certificate of incapacity for work, in which the hospital does not fill in the name of the organization and the part-time status. Khvorov provides the ELN number to both employers. Then, using the sheet number and SNILS, the organization receives an electronic tax record, fills in the calculation data and its details and sends the completed electronic tax record to the Social Insurance Fund.

How to open a BL in a clinic or at home?

You can open a sick leave certificate in the following ways:

1. If you notice symptoms of the disease, contact the clinic at your place of residence (another clinic, for example, if you are in another city) or another medical institution (private medical center). The doctor will open a sick leave on the day of treatment (the sick leave certificate will not be opened retroactively), and the duration of the sick leave itself will depend on the diagnosis and the patient’s condition.
2. If your health does not allow you to independently get an appointment with a doctor at the clinic, then you should call a local doctor at home or emergency care. The local doctor will open a certificate of incapacity for work from the date of the visit to the patient, prescribe treatment and determine the date of the visit to the clinic for examination and prescribing further treatment or closing sick leave (read about what a sick leave certificate looks like and what is the procedure for filling it out here).
3. If the illness overtakes an employee at the workplace , then you should initially go to the medical center at the enterprise, where the patient will be given a referral to the clinic for examination. In this case, the employee can go to the medical facility the next day, but the date of opening the certificate of incapacity for work will be the day the employee goes to the medical center.

How does a certificate of incapacity for work open in a clinic? To register a newsletter you will need:

1. Issue a ticket for an appointment with a therapist, who, if necessary, will give a referral to a highly specialized specialist, and come to the appointment. You must have a passport and medical insurance with you. The patient can also go to the emergency room at the clinic.
2. At an appointment with a doctor, undergo an examination, during which a diagnosis will be made and, if necessary, a sick leave certificate will be issued. At the patient’s first visit, the doctor fills out a sick leave form and sets the date of onset of the illness. The form can remain in the clinic or be handed to the patient, but it will be valid only after the doctor closes it and the medical institution’s seals are affixed to it.
3. After treatment, the patient will need to come for a follow-up appointment on the day prescribed by the doctor. Depending on the patient’s health condition, they may be discharged or further examination may be prescribed and the notice may be extended. The terms for extending the certificate of incapacity for work are established by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n. The patient provides a closed sick leave certificate to the employer within the time limits established by law (Article 12 No. 255-FZ).

The new ENL simplified the procedure for recording days for sick family members

Previously, in both paper and electronic sick leave issued to care for a sick family member, only two people could be indicated. The form provided only two fields for information about the sick. If there were three or more patients, it was necessary to generate another certificate of incapacity for work.

There are no changes for BLN: if two children become ill at the same time, one paper sheet is issued to care for them. If more than two children are sick at a time, a second piece of paper is issued.

Fill out the electronic registration form quickly and without errors and create registers in Externa

The ELN for caring for a sick family member is formed in a single copy, even if there are more than two sick people (clause of the Procedure). For each patient the periods of care for him , the conditions for the provision of medical care, full name, date of birth, code of the cause of disability, related (family) connection, SNILS are indicated. Also, from the medical information system of the medical organization, in which the certificate of incapacity for work is generated, the ICD code is automatically indicated (clause of the Procedure).

This innovation will help reduce the number of certificates of incapacity for work and keep a more accurate record of days for each sick child using electronic sick leave.

Example

The employee’s two children fell ill: three and six years old.
For each child, the number of days paid in the current calendar year is limited - for each case of illness, the entire period of disability is paid, but not more than 60 days during the calendar year. Let’s say that the youngest child fell ill first from the 1st to the 10th, then the eldest from the 7th to the 16th. The periods of their illness overlap, so one common certificate of incapacity for work is formed from 1 to 16.

If a BLN has been formed, it is difficult to identify periods of illness and the number of paid sick days for each child. There is no unambiguous approach to recording paid days - some inspectors recommend taking into account 16 paid days in a calendar year for each child, others recommend asking for a certificate from the clinic, and some suggest relying “on the words of the employee.”

Information in the ENL for each sick child will allow you to accurately determine how many days are used this year and how many days need to be paid.

How to fill out a sick leave certificate correctly

A sick leave certificate is an important document for the employee and the organization that pays for this period of incapacity. Incorrect filling, errors or forgery entail criminal and administrative liability. In connection with this law, requirements for filling out the ballot have been drawn up.

The certificate of incapacity for work can be divided into 3 parts:

1. space to be filled in by the attending physician;
2. space to be filled in by the employer;
3. tear-off spine for medical institutions.

There are special requirements for filling out the document:

• The lines are filled in with a black gel or capillary pen. Letters must be printed; capitalization may be considered an error.
• The form is affixed with the seal of the medical institution where the document was issued and the seal of the employer. Prints must be clearly visible and not smudged.
• There should be no typos or corrections in the lines filled out by the doctor, otherwise the form is considered invalid. Errors when filling out by the employer can be corrected.
• All lines on the ballot must be filled out and all the appropriate boxes must be ticked. Each letter must be in one cell; it is not allowed to fit several letters into one cell. If a word does not fit in a line, it breaks off.

Discrepancy with these rules entails the declaration of the sheet as invalid. In this case, a correctly completed duplicate is issued, otherwise the sick leave is invalid and cannot serve as a basis for payment for the period of illness.

Temporary disability of a person is documented only by a medical institution that has the right to do so. These include:

• public and private medical institutions with a valid license;
• research institutes;
• dental clinics.

Sick leave certificates do not have the right to be issued in ambulances, at blood transfusion stations, as well as in various types of hospitals and special medical institutions.

The procedure for filling out by a medical institution

The medical institution issues a bulletin to the patient on a strict reporting form. At the hospital, the main content part is filled out with all the necessary notes. Mandatory data:

• A check mark indicates whether this is a primary sheet or a duplicate to replace a damaged or lost document. If a patient has two or more sick leaves opened one after another, the number of the previous document is entered in the appropriate field.
• The full name of the medical institution, its address and OGRN number are indicated.
• The date of issue of the form is indicated.
• The last name, first name and patronymic, year of birth and gender of the patient are indicated.
• The type of employment of the patient is noted. The payment for the newsletter and the features of its design depend on this.
• In accordance with medical ethics, the disease is not indicated, but the required code is entered. The decoding of the codes is located on the back of the document.
• The name of the place of work is written in full. If a person is not officially employed, but is registered at the labor exchange, only a tick is placed in a specially designated box.
• The patient's temporary disability is entered in the "Exemption from work" field. The dates of the doctor’s visit are also entered there, indicating the position, surname of the treating specialist and his signature.
• After the person recovers, the “Get to work” field is filled in. The date is set to the next day after the last visit to the doctor, even if it is a weekend or holiday.
• If additional observation is required, or if you are on a sanatorium-resort regime, enter the required code in the “Other” column. The doctor puts his signature in a special box.
• If a person was treated in a hospital, this period is indicated in the required cells.
• The stamp of the medical organization is placed in specially designated places (next to information about the medical institution and at the place of the doctor’s signature in the paragraph “Exemption from work”).

Sick leave can be classified due to temporary disability into the following types:

1. a bulletin for a sick employee;
2. caring for a sick family member (for example, a child);
3. maternity leave.

The requirements for filling out information are the same, but there are some peculiarities. For example, on a certificate of incapacity for work for caring for a sick family member, in the line “Caring” the age, relationship and full name of the sick family member are indicated.

From the thirtieth week of pregnancy, a woman is entitled to maternity leave. For this purpose, she is given a standard sick leave certificate at the antenatal clinic where she is being seen. All fields are filled in indicating the required disease code “Maternity leave”.

Procedure for filling out by employer

A certificate of incapacity for work confirms the legality of the employee’s absence. The law establishes that an employee can transfer sick leave to work within six months from the date of receipt. However, the benefit is paid only after presenting the document to the employer.

ADVICE! The original sick leave certificate cannot be folded, as a defect may form on the folds, due to which the employer has the right not to accept the ballot.

When accepting the ballot, the director of the organization checks the authenticity of the document and the correctness of its completion by the medical organization. If errors or shortcomings are found, the form is returned to the employee to correct them. An employee may request a duplicate certificate of incapacity for work. The medical institution has no right to refuse.

If the type of sick leave is suspicious, the employer has the right to request information about the authenticity of the document from the institution where the sick leave form was issued. To do this, a statement is drawn up in any form with a request to confirm the validity of the document.

IMPORTANT! Forgery of a ballot by an employee is regarded as fraud and falsification of a government-issued document, which entails criminal liability.

The second part of the sick leave certificate is filled out by the organization in which the patient works. There is a special area on the form for this purpose. The employer fills out all the lines provided for him:

• full legal name of the company;
• the type of person’s work is noted (main or part-time);
• INN and SNILS of the employee;
• start date of work and total length of insurance (information from the work book);
• the temporary disability of the employee is indicated according to the data from the column “Exemption from work”;
• the average daily earnings and the average earnings for calculating benefits are calculated;
• the amount of benefits at the expense of the organization and at the expense of the Social Insurance Fund is noted separately (payment of sick leave by the employer is the first 3 days of the employee’s illness, the rest of the time is compensated from the social insurance fund);
• The full name of the head of the company and the chief accountant is indicated and signatures are placed;
• The field filled out by the employer is certified by the seal of the organization.

After the accounting department receives a correctly completed ballot, sick leave is paid.

ATTENTION! The average income of the employee over the last 2 calendar years is taken into account when calculating payment. If a person changed his place of work during this period, it is necessary to provide a certificate in form 182n (certificate of salary amount) confirming income. If there is no certificate or the person has not officially worked, temporary disability benefits are calculated based on the established minimum wage.

Common mistakes when applying for sick leave

Despite the established procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work and filling them out, errors are inevitable. Most often they are done by the medical organization that issues sick leave.

These may be errors of the following nature:

1. Confusion about the dates of appointment with the attending physician and return to work.
2. Incorrect indication of the numbers of the previous and current sheets (if any).
3. Lack of signature of the attending physician.
4. Absence of hospital stamps or incorrect affixing of them.
5. No disease code.
6. The checkboxes are not ticked in the right places (for example, the gender of the patient).
7. Grammatical errors and typos.

Employer mistakes occur when the lines are not filled out carefully. For example, the period of treatment was entered incorrectly or the length of service was incorrectly calculated.

Electronic sick leave

Federal Law No. 255 dated 12/29/06, Article 13, approves the procedure for establishing and paying sickness benefits related to the birth and care of babies. It says the following about electronic sick leave:

• issued only with the written consent of the citizen;
• placed in a special information system;
• must be signed with an electronic signature.

Three parties are involved in the preparation of the document: the hospital (clinic), the company and the Social Insurance Fund. The employee receives only the code number of the sheet, and not the document itself, as in the paper version.

In practice, the following procedure for working with electronic BL is accepted:

• the doctor opens a sick leave, draws up a document;
• upon completion of treatment (observation), in other appropriate cases, the document is closed by him;
• the citizen is provided with a unique document number;
• the number is transferred to the employer;
• the company makes a request for sick leave from the Social Insurance Fund;
• the employer enters the necessary information into the document;
• The Social Insurance Fund pays for sick leave.

Payment occurs, as with a paper sick leave, by direct payments from the Social Insurance Fund (a pilot project is operating in the regions) or through a company (if the traditional algorithm for interaction with the Fund is used).

The electronic document is no different in form from the paper version and has the same fields for filling in with data.

The UIIS “Sotsstrakh” system unites all participants in electronic document exchange. You can connect to it in two ways:

• download free software and register in your personal account on the Social Insurance Fund website;
• install your own software from a trusted supplier (for example, VLSI) and work with the Foundation through it.

To work with electronic sick leave, the employer can use the login and password of the government services website, which in turn provides access to the company’s personal account. The interface of the office allows you not only to fill out and send sick leave for further processing, but also to track their progress to the fund, correct errors indicated by the system in a timely manner, and track the status of the sick leave.

Important! The employer has no obligation to implement electronic sick leave. If a medical institution offers a citizen to obtain such a document, it is necessary to check with the employer the technical possibility of working with it. If the employer is provided with information about electronic sick leave from the employee, but there is no opportunity to process it, you must contact the medical department. organization with a request to replace it with a paper version (FSS letter No. 02-09-11/22-05-13462 dated 11/08/17).

Electronic sick leave is issued by both public and private clinics.

Renewal procedure

It is important to note that the extension of sick leave by the medical commission is carried out after the total amount of sick leave is 15 days, and not for each certificate of incapacity for work, regardless of how many of them the patient has on hand.

Grounds and conditions

There are two grounds for extending sick leave for more than 15 days:

• the illness or injury that caused temporary disability has not been cured or complications have arisen during treatment;
• the occurrence of complications during pregnancy, childbirth or after the birth of a child.

The medical commission decides on the extension only in the first situation. Extension periods for complicated pregnancies are provided for by law (Article 255 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and Article 10 of Federal Law No. 255 “On compulsory social insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with maternity”).

The conditions for extending a certificate of incapacity for work beyond 15 days are:

1. the patient’s appearance at the appointed time to undergo the commission;
2. completing all diagnostic examinations and tests prescribed by her;
3. the commission makes a decision to extend sick leave, which is entered into the protocol.

Commission meeting

The commission meets once a week (the specific day is set according to the plan), but if a patient appears for whom the issue of extending temporary disability leave is being decided, an unscheduled meeting may be scheduled.

Resolution

The decision of the commission is recorded and signed by all its members present during the meeting. It is considered adopted if it is supported by 2/3 of the members.

The protocol contains the following information:

• date of the meeting;
• a list of commission members present at it;
• list of issues submitted for discussion;
• reasoned decision on them.

An extract from it is given to the patient, and information about the decision made is entered into the patient’s chart and hospital journal. The original protocol is kept in the archive for 10 years.

Who fills out the document and how?

When a decision is made to extend leave for temporary disability by decision of the commission, a new sick leave certificate is issued. The filling procedure is similar to regular outpatient treatment, but with the following information displayed:

1. In the line “surname and initials of the doctor or identification number”, in addition to information about the attending physician, similar information about the chairman of the commission is entered (if there are not enough cells, only their last names are indicated).
2. The line “doctor’s position” also indicates the position of the previous doctor. VC.

Signatures

After the BL is extended by the commission, two signatures must be placed on it: the attending physician and the chairman of the commission. The absence of a signature entails the invalidity of the certificate of incapacity for work.