On October 1, 2021, Ukraine switched to electronic sick leave. Sick leave in paper form until February 1, 2022 can only be issued in clearly defined cases.

 

Cases in which it is allowed to issue paper sick leave after October 1, 2021 are defined in clause 8 of the Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine No. 1066 of June 01, 2021″ Some Issues of Forming Medical Reports on Temporary Disability and Their Verification” (Order No. 1066). There are only four such cases.

 

When continuing/closing

 

Until February 1, 2022, sick leave in paper form will be issued when extending and closing paper disability certificates, issued before October 1, 2021. If the primary disability certificate was issued in paper form, all other sick leaves issued as its continuation must also be issued on paper.

 

Please note that until October 1, 2021, paper disability certificates were issued:

  • if the medical institution did not have the technical capabilities to form medical reports in the Register;
  • to persons who had already received a paper sick leave;
  • due to pregnancy and childbirth. The category of medical reports on temporary disability “Pregnancy and childbirth” began to be applied only from October 1, 2021;
  • if the patient’s temporary disability is caused by HIV or a mental disorder.

 

It is very easy to determine whether a paper sick leave is a continuation of the primary disability certificate. In the upper part of such a continuation sheet, the number of the primary sick leave must be indicated. If this particular sick leave was brought by your employee, do not hesitate to proceed to the procedure for assigning material support for the period of disability of the employee.

 

If the deadline for making changes has expired

 

Also, a paper sick leave will be issued if the period during which the doctor can make changes to the medical report in the Register of medical reports has expired.

 

If the e-sick leave was generated with errors which the doctor did not have time (or could not) correct within the established time limit (7 calendar days), the employee will be issued a paper sick leave.

What are these errors? Please note that the Electronic Register of Disability Certificates includes data from several sources. For example:

 

It is quite possible that they will contain errors. Let’s say the employer filled out the reports incorrectly (incorrectly noted full name of the employee). Or it may be that the doctor made a mistake when filling out the medical report. Sick leave with erroneous data cannot be a basis for paying for the period of disability. In other words, the inaccuracies made should be corrected.

 

To do this, you may need:

  • the employer should specify the data in the previously submitted reports or notification of employment;
  • the employee should contact the PFU (restore personal data) or a doctor to make changes to the medical report.

 

Please note that the doctor can make changes to the medical report based on which the e-sick leave was formed (if false information is found in it) no later than the seventh day from the date of its formation (clause 9, Section IV “Procedure for Forming Medical Reports on Temporary Disability in the Register of Medical Reports in the Electronic Health System”, approved by Order of the Ministry of Health No. 1066 of June 01, 2021 ). In this case, the decision to issue a disability certificate in paper form is made by the medical advisory commission of the health care institution, and in its absence, by the chief of the institution.

 

When adopting a child

 

After October 1, 2021, a paper sick leave will also be issued in case of adoption of a newborn child by an insured woman. Such a paper disability certificate is issued within two months from the date of birth of the child specified in the child’s birth certificate (based on this certificate and the court’s decision on the adoption of the child).

 

For technical reasons

 

An employee may be issued a sick leave in paper form: if e-sick leave is not formed due to technical problems (errors). Most often, this is due to errors in personal data. As a result, the exchange of information between databases involved in creating an Electronic Register of Disability Certificates is disrupted (they cannot be synchronized). As a result, the system cannot generate an e-sick leave.

 

This happens, for example, if the patient’s personal data specified in the E-Health does not match the data in the Register of Insured Persons (due to a change of last name or different spellings of the full name, errors in the TIN or passport number/series).

 

If within seven days from the date of creating a medical report on temporary disability, it was not possible to eliminate the inaccuracies that caused the e-sick leave not to be created, the employee will be issued a paper sick leave.

 

Since the basis for assigning sick leave, as before, is a disability certificate issued according to the established procedure, the legislation does not require the employer to establish the reason why the employee was issued a paper sick leave.