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HEALTH

How Germany plans to ditch paper sick notes for digital ones

Up until now, employees in Germany on sick leave have been required to submit a sick notification on paper directly to their employer.

Published: 19 September 2019 11:54 CEST
How Germany plans to ditch paper sick notes for digital ones
An 'Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung', or sick note, which until now the employee submits directly to their employer after receiving it from a doctor. Photo: DPA

But the yellow paper note – officially called a Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung (incapacity to work certificate) is slated to be abolished and replaced by an electronic certificate as of January 1st, 2021. 

Through a new regulation, doctors' practices will inform health insurance companies electronically about sick leave in the future.

The latter will then forward the certificate directly to the employer, and let them know about the start date and duration of the sick leave. 

A bill to replace the long-standing paper gelben Scheine (yellow notes), as they are commonly known, was pushed forward by Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) as a way of minimizing bureaucracy. 

Passed on Wednesday, it applies to all legally insured people in Germany, or about 85 percent of the population. 

READ ALSO: German healthcare – Everything you need to know

Electronically submitted

The sick notification has previously consisted of several pieces of paper: One must be sent to the employer, one to the health insurance company, and one is intended for personal files.

Employees are usually required to give their employers this official notification after the fourth day of calling in sick. However, some employers may demand official proof as early as the first day of sick leave.  

READ ALSO: The 10 rules you need to know if you get sick in Germany

While the new regulation officially goes into effect on January 1st, 2021, Statutory health insurance company Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) already has a pilot project for sick notifications to be transmitted digitally to employers.

An increasing number of people are taking sick leave in Germany each year, with an estimated 4.45 percent of publicly insured workers away from the office due to illness in 2019.

Graph prepared for The Local by Statista.

Yet some say that the plans don’t go far enough to relieve red tape. “One swallow does not make a summer”- and [one digital plan] doesn't yet make a law to relieve bureaucracy,” said Steffen Kampeter, Managing Director of the employers' association BDA, to DPA.

There have been previous attempts to reduce bureaucracy involved with sick notes. Late last year, a Hamburg start-up announced a plan to issue sick notes through WhatsApp after connecting patients and doctors. 

However, health care companies were sceptical of the notes being accepted by all employers.

READ ALSO: Don’t use WhatsApp sick note service, German doctors advise 

Germany’s grand coalition is planning further digitalization measures. In the future, it will be easier to store tax documents electronically. Furthermore, a digital registration form is planned for overnight stays in hotels.

Vocabulary

Abolish – abschaffen

Notification of sickness – (die) Krankmeldung

Doctor’s note – (die) Krankschreibung

Sick leave – (der) Krankenstand (KS)

Transmitted digitally – digital übermittelt

One swallow does not make a summer – Eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Sommer 

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Published: 10 May 2023 15:09 CEST
Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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