Electronic sick leave 2023: What will change for employees?
Created: 11/25/2022, 4:30 p.m
By: Anne Hund
From 2023, the so-called eAU will be mandatory for employers.
What does this mean for employees?
experts explain it.
Every employee knows it: you get sick and would prefer to just stay in bed.
But first you have to report sick to your employer.
Each company regulates how this has to be done in a slightly different way.
For example, it may have been agreed in the company that you report directly to your manager.
It is important that you personally report sick to your employer before you start work or, as lawyers explain, during the first hours of operation and at the same time tell him how long you are likely to be absent from work.
Now the actual sick leave comes into play: If you are ill for a longer period of time, the doctor must write you sick.
Most companies only require a certificate of incapacity to work (AU) from the fourth day of illness, others earlier.
For example, your employment contract may stipulate that the employer may request a medical certificate from the first or second day.
Electronic sick leave: eAU has been in effect for medical practices since 2022
Everyone knows the yellow note.
© McPHOTO/B.
Leitner/Imago
So now you need an AU that everyone knows in the form of the yellow paper certificate.
In many practices, however, there is already a so-called eAU, i.e. an electronic certificate of incapacity for work.
"This means that the practices automatically send a digital copy of the AU to the employer," as stated in a report on
BR.de
on the subject.
Since January 2022, as part of a pilot process, employers have been able to call up eAU data from the health insurance companies retrospectively for periods from October 1, 2021, the
Techniker Krankenkasse
(TK) has also informed.
eAU mandatory for employers from 2023 – what does the change mean for employees?
According to TK, from next year there will be an important change that will not only affect employers: "From January 1, 2023, retrieving AU data from health insurance companies will be mandatory for employers," the health insurance company informs on its website.
"From then on, employees no longer have to present their employer with an AU certificate." What should be retained - at least for the time being - is "a medical paper certificate of incapacity for work as legally required evidence," TK continued.
In addition, the employee still has the obligation to notify the employer of his incapacity for work and to have this medically determined.
You can find out what employees also need to know about the eAU here.
Electronic sick note - new procedure does not apply to all employees
At the same time, TK informs that regular or general retrieval of eAU data by employers is not permitted.
"The AU certificates (initial and follow-up certificates) can only be requested individually for the respective employee." The eAU is also not intended to cover all employment relationships and every insurance status.
Among other things, the new procedure does not apply to employees with private health insurance, as the legal
portal haufe.de
describes.
Basically, according to the experts, even after the end of the eAU pilot phase for employers, employees still have the right “to the doctor handing them the certificate of incapacity for work in paper form”, as the report states.
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Telephone sick leave possible until March 2023
The option of taking sick leave over the phone has now been extended until March 31, 2023: Patients suffering from mild respiratory diseases can also talk to their doctor over the phone as part of the special corona regulation.
The doctor then decides whether to give the patient sick leave.
Such sick leave can be extended once for up to seven days.
Sick leave in the video consultation
"Regardless of the corona pandemic, insured persons can also receive their sick leave - if the practice offers this - via video consultation," TK also announced in November.
This applies if no personal physical examination by the doctor is necessary for the diagnosis of the disease.
"If the patient was previously unknown to the doctor's office, he can be given sick leave for up to three calendar days via video consultation," says TK.
"If the sick person was already listed as a patient in the doctor's office, sick leave of up to seven calendar days is possible."