From January 2023, employees will no longer report sick with the yellow slip, but only electronically. The so-called eAU (electronic certificate of incapacity for work) is to become the standard and replace the paper version in the new year.
But how does the new eAU procedure actually work? What information is transmitted to the employer? Is the transfer secure? And what applies to privately insured persons? We answer the most important questions about the electronic AU?
When does the digital sick leave apply?
The new eAU procedure will apply from 2023. Or to put it another way: it is not applicable for the employee from January 1, 2023 the “obligation to submit the certificate of incapacity for work in paper form”, as the Berlin specialist lawyer for labor law Alexander Bredereck clarified to the German Press Agency (dpa).
Does that mean that as an employee you are generally exempt from the obligation to report sick? no According to Bredeck, people with statutory health insurance must continue to do so go to the doctor on timeto enable and trigger the creation of a certificate of incapacity for work.
Also the Employers should be informed immediatelyif you are absent due to illness. The expected Duration of sick leave should also be communicated.
How will sick leave work from 2023?
The way to report sick is the same: First, as an employee, you report the absence due to illness your employer immediately. The actual sick leave will continue to be yours by your treating doctor displayed.
What changes from January: The doctor’s office transmits the AU on the day of the exhibition even to the health insurance company. And your health insurance in turn makes the data available to your employerif he wants to retrieve them.
As soon as you have reported the loss of work to your employer, they can decide for themselves whether to issue the certificate requested from your health insurance company and retrieves.
The background: Depending on how much waiting time (i.e. sick days without sickness certificate) your employer contractually grants you, an eAU can also be superfluous – for example, if you are only absent for one day, but only have to submit a sick note after the third day of absence.
Do you still need a paper slip?
If you want to protect yourself as an employee, you should continue to file the sick note with your documents – either digitally or in paper form. how the AOK in their online service area reports that those with statutory health insurance can also get a printout for their documents from their doctor’s office in 2023 “if they wish”.
Lawyer Bredereck even explicitly advises insisting on an execution for the employee. If the employer doubts the inability to work, insured persons can This is the only way to prove their incapacity for work.
“This is the only way the employee can secure his right to continued payment of wages and avoids a warning or dismissal for inactivity,” says the specialist lawyer for labor law.
What information is transmitted via eAU?
As before, the employer receives no information about what diagnosis the doctor treating you has ascertained when he or she is sick. Digital sick leave will continue to be used only the master data is transmitted.
Is the eAU also available for privately insured persons?
no The new eAU procedure will be effective from January 1, 2023 only the panel doctors and contract practices made available.
Like the Techniker Krankenkasse in the service area on their website makes it clear, private doctors, physiotherapists and psychotherapists or rehabilitation facilities have been taking so far not yet part of the new eAU procedure.
What does that mean for privately insured people? For privately insured patients nothing changes to the previous approach. In the event of illness-related absence from work, privately insured persons will continue to send their sick leave even via paper slip to the employer and to private health insurance (PKV).
As the private health insurance association announced, there is currently still no legal regulation to offer the eAU procedure to privately insured persons.
The managing director of the private health insurance association, Christian Hälker, announced in a press release in 2021 that they were interested in the privately insured “as soon as possible to offer the electronic certificate of incapacity for work.”
Is the data transmission for digital sick leave secure?
As the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) writes in its “Patient Information” on the eAU, patient data remains protected with the new eAU procedure.
For the forwarding of sensitive information, the medical practices use a “specially developed network – the telematics infrastructure“ (short: TI). All messages and information are “specially encrypted”, according to the KBV.
When do you need a sick note?
You can decide how long you can stay at home as an employee without a sickness certificate Check your employment or collective agreement.
According to legal regulations, employees are obliged to do so to their employer no later than the fourth day of absence submit a certificate of incapacity for work. This emerges from Paragraph 5 of the Continued Pay Act (EFZG for short).
Attention: In theory, the employer can from the first day of absence request a sick note. This is also regulated by the EFZG. The early submission of a medical certificate can be due either on a special order (and without justification) or according to the employment contract.
The employer is entitled to request the submission of the medical certificate earlier.
§ 5 of the EFZG via Federal Ministry of Justice
Can I get sick leave over the phone?
That’s still possible. The federal government has in a special corona regulation decided that doctors should also be allowed to give their patients sick leave over the phone for a period of up to seven days. If necessary, the first sick leave can be extended once by a further seven days by telephone.
This special regulation was only extended in November and is valid until March 31, 2023. As the federal government announced, the main purpose of this regulation is to “avoid full waiting rooms”. (with dpa)
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