BDA AGENDA 25/22 | Topic of the week | December 22, 2022
From January 1, 2023, the sick leave certificate for employees with statutory health insurance and their employers will be digital. To ensure that everything runs smoothly and employers are not burdened, doctors and politicians still have some homework to do.
The introduction of the electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU) represents a further important step towards the digitalization of previously paper-based processes and should simplify the process for everyone involved. The BDA is committed to a smooth process and is working towards the necessary improvements for all those involved in the process. In addition, it provides employers with bundled information to ensure a successful launch of the eAU on January 1.
From January 1, 2023, employers will only be able to retrieve the incapacity to work data of their employees with statutory health insurance from the health insurance funds electronically. Although employees will still have to "report sick", the law will no longer require them to present the "yellow slip".
In order to guarantee a smooth start, contract doctors and politicians still have some homework to do. Currently, only over 80 percent of sick leave certificates are transmitted electronically by doctors to the health insurance funds. The panel doctors still have a lot of work to do here. In addition, politicians must finally create legal certainty in cases where it is not technically possible to transmit data from doctors' surgeries to the health insurance funds and close the existing loopholes in the new procedure in the Continued Remuneration Act.
This is the only way to ensure that the mass procedure, which is very relevant for employers with around 77 million certificates of incapacity for work every year, functions as error-free as possible. Given its importance for the calculation of income protection benefits (continued remuneration, sick pay), this is crucial for employers and employees.
