Sick Leave Certificate

SICK LEAVE CERTIFICATE (bulletin, notice of incapacity), a form of a specific type established by agreement between the Narkozdrav and Narkotrud (under the Main Administration of Social Insurance), serving as proof of temporary loss of work ability for an insured person. The sick leave certificate is the sole document granting the right to receive benefits from the insurance fund. The right to issue a sick leave certificate is granted exclusively to medical and medical-preventive institutions of Narkozdrav and its bodies. Filling out a sick leave certificate and signing it may be performed only by doctors working in state medical and medical-preventive institutions. In areas where there is no doctor, this right may be granted, by agreement between the corresponding health authority and the insurance fund, to the head of a nurse station. Sick leave certificates are numbered with serial numbers, which are previously communicated to the insurance fund; in the same way, the fund is provided with samples of the signatures of persons having the right to sign the sick leave certificate. The sick leave certificate consists of a) a detachable notice coupon and b) the actual sick leave certificate. Notice of the issuance of a sick leave certificate is sent to the insurance fund no later than 24 hours after its issuance, which makes it possible to compare the notice with the sick leave certificate and establish its authenticity. The notice contains brief data about the insured person, the diagnosis, the duration of the leave and the physician's prescription, the number of the sick leave certificate, is sealed with the signature of the doctor who issued it and the seal of the medical institution. The sick leave certificate consists of several sections. On the front side are placed data about the insured person, information about the disease (diagnosis), accident or childbirth, information about the prescribed treatment, the period for which the patient is recognized as incapacitated, as well as a note about the restoration of work ability. These data are filled out by the doctor or medical institution and are sealed with the corresponding signature and seal. On the back side of the sick leave certificate are placed: a section for the marks of the controller visiting the patient at home; next to this section are entered data and decisions of the medical consultation, if the patient is referred to it; a section filled out by the enterprise and containing the name of the enterprise, position, profession and place of work of the insured, the time of leaving work of the insured, the time of starting work at the enterprise and information about wages. The last section of the sick leave certificate contains the marks of the insurance fund, the financial calculation with marks about the issuance of benefits, its amount or refusal to issue benefits to the insured. Persons filling out the sick leave certificate with information bear responsibility for their accuracy. Filling out the sick leave certificate with incorrect information or their forgery is prosecuted criminally. Doctors who incorrectly granted leave bear responsibility in a disciplinary manner, and in the presence of a crime—in a criminal manner.