The employer procedure for the electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU) has been mandatory for three months. People with statutory health insurance no longer have to present a sickness certificate in the event of illness, but can still take sick leave, depending on their employment contract. On the occasion of the presentation of the new planned digital strategy of the Federal Ministry of Health, we asked various associations how well the introduction worked. Apparently, it still poses a challenge, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs):
“Instead of simplifying and accelerating – that’s the point of digitization – the eAU means a lot of extra work for companies. Since they have to proactively retrieve data from the health insurance companies, they have no choice but to adapt internal workflows and put additional work into the bureaucracy. The potential for error is high, disputes between employers and employees are inevitable – especially in the initial phase,” complains Volker Tschirch, the general manager of the North German business association AGA. The eAU belongs in the category “well thought, badly done”.
“The eAU is the result of digital wishful thinking on the part of statutory health insurance companies and political decision-makers, without taking into account the reality in medical practices and companies. As a result, small and medium-sized companies in particular suffer from a massive increase in administrative workload and loss of control,” says Marc. S. Tenbieg, the executive director of the German Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Difference between private and statutory health insurance
According to Tschirch, the new routines would level off over time, “but the bottom line is that there is a significant additional effort for employers”. Especially since privately insured people would still have to submit their sick leave in paper form. He describes the confusion between analog and digital as “an impertinence for HR departments”. Employers must request the eAU for employees with statutory insurance from the Central Association of Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) – however, this must not be done too early. for dr Hans-Jürgen Völz, chief economist at the Federal Association of Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW), therefore needs to be clarified “how to deal with different deadlines for the submission of AU certificates”.
In the case of illness, different verification deadlines
Some of the employees are obliged to present AU certificates on the first day, others would have to prove on the fourth day that they are ill – by visiting a doctor. Despite the introduction of the eAU, these contractual obligations remain in place, which is why the punctual retrieval of the eAU is particularly important. “Otherwise there are consequences under labor law,” says Völz. It is possible that an employee has called in sick, but the eAU cannot be accessed and the continued payment of wages under the Continued Pay Act can be reclaimed by the employer. Völz also explains that the delays can also lead to problems “if there is uncertainty about the illness status of an employee and the employer then stops paying the wages for the time being. If the eAU can then be called up late, the wages to which the employee is entitled would have to be paid become.”
Almost half of the SMEs surveyed are against the introduction of the eAU.
(Image: BVMW)
A survey by the BVMW among 1,600 companies was found in mid-Februarythat 87 percent would like the electronic certificate of incapacity to work (eAU) to be automatically sent by the health insurance companies. 78 percent stated that the introduction was problematic. Especially in the economically tense situation, these additional expenses should have been taken into account, says Völz.
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians warned several times
The eAU has been mandatory for medical and psychotherapy practices since October 2021. A voluntary test phase for employers started on January 1, 2022. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) states that it has already been “warned and asked several times [zu haben]whether all employers and companies can really use the eAU procedure at the beginning of 2023 and are informed about the processes. Apparently, there seems to be occasional friction in the interaction between the health insurance company and the employer,” says KBV press spokesman Roland Stahl. The experiences and feedback from the resident doctors show that the eAU works well overall. The eAU in paper form is then mainly still issued “Because, for example, the employer does not (yet) know or use the digital process”. In this case, the effort in the practices is great, and the work is not relieved.
(mack)
