Andreas Gassen proposes extending the deadline by which employees must present a sick note. Because it would save a lot of money.
epd | The head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, is in favor of loosening the rules for sick notes in order to save money in the health care system. “The legal possibility for employers to require the presentation of a sick note within the first three days generates thousands of doctor visits that, in our view, are not strictly necessary,” Gassen told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (Sunday).
The chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) suggested removing the corresponding exemption from the law. “A general certificate of incapacity for work only from the fourth day would again carry the status of a genuine medical certificate and not of a ‘form template’,” said Gassen.
He also debated raising the current three-day deadline to four or five days in general. It is about a grace period managed by the employees themselves, argued Gassen. If the deadline were extended, the certificate of incapacity for work would have to be presented no later than the fifth or sixth day.
According to Gassen, about 116 million sick notes are issued each year, reported the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. About 35 percent of them have a total duration of at most three days. If these were eliminated, the health care system would be relieved by 1.4 million working hours or costs of €100 million, according to his statements.
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