Employees who are on sick leave from next year no longer have to send the medical certificate to their employer. After reporting sick, companies receive the receipt directly from the health insurance company. The GKV has ended the test phase. However, there are also exceptions to the new regulation.
According to the statutory health insurance (GKV), the electronic certificate of incapacity for work is ready for regular use. The pilot phase, in which employers could convert and test their systems, has been successfully completed, the statutory health insurance announced. In November, employers retrieved 1.1 million electronic certificates from statutory health insurance companies - compared to January of this year, the first month of piloting, an increase of 1300 percent.
From October to November 2022 alone, there was an increase in calls by 78 percent. In total, employers called up almost four million electronic sick notes from their employees in the pilot phase, as the GKV further announced. From January 1, 2023, the procedure is mandatory.
"The electronic certificate of incapacity for work is a success story and shows that the digitization of the healthcare system can succeed," said Doris Pfeiffer, chairwoman of the GKV umbrella association. "The one-year pilot phase was used sensibly to test systems, fix errors and create a very solid basis of almost four million test runs in real operation."
Medical practices have been obliged to use the electronic certificate of incapacity for work since July 2022. Accordingly, the numbers have also gone up here in recent months: According to the GKV, there were 2.6 million certificates per week. Since the beginning of August 2021, a total of 61.4 million certificates have been sent from practices to health insurance companies. According to rough estimates, a total of around 77 million sick notes are issued each year.
From January 1, 2023, people with statutory health insurance will only receive a printout of their sick leave for their own records in the medical practice. As usual, you must deregister with the employer at the beginning of the incapacity for work and state the expected duration of the incapacity for work. The medical practices send the certificate of incapacity to work to the health insurance companies. Employers, in turn, actively call up the data from the health insurance companies when employees call in sick.
The Federal Employment Agency pointed out that the change does not yet apply to people registered with it. Agencies and job centers will not be able to call up certificates of incapacity for their customers until January 2024. They should therefore actively request the certificate from their doctor.
