Medical leave - changes to the Social Insurance Institution from January 1, 2015

From next year, the provisions on sick leave will change. The existing paper-based exemptions will gradually be replaced by those in the electronic version. This is to speed up the work of doctors and improve the flow of documents between the employee, employer and the Social Insurance Institution.

E-leaves, i.e. medical leaves in an electronic version

Pursuant to the amendment to the Act on cash benefits from social insurance in the event of sickness and maternity, doctors will issue electronic medical certificates. These changes are aimed at shortening the time of document circulation. Until now, a certificate issued by a doctor had to be delivered by an employee to the workplace within 7 days. According to the new regulations, the sick leave will be automatically delivered to both the employer and the Social Insurance Institution by e-mail immediately after it has been issued. The amendment to the regulations will also facilitate the verification of exemptions and prevent their abuse. It happened that the certificate reached the employer after the period in which it was in force, which made it impossible to verify whether the employee was actually ill.

Electronic sick leave and the duties of a doctor

A special system will be used to issue e-exemptions. Each certificate issued by a doctor in an electronic form using a qualified ePUAP certificate or trusted profile. This will be a prerequisite for the e-waiver to be treated in the same way as its paper counterpart. In the event of a home visit or lack of internet access, the doctor will be able to continue to issue a paper-based certificate.

Paper-based sick leave only upon request

A paper version of the sick leave may be issued only if the employer does not have the information profile of the contribution payer or at the explicit request of the sick person.