Workers should only need sick note after four or five days, says doctors' association
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A doctors' association has called on lawmakers to increase the number of sick leave days employees can take before having to provide their employer with a doctor's note.
KBV: Sick leave self-certification period should be extended
The head of the German National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung or KBV) has said that employees in Germany should only have to provide their employer with a sick note after the fourth or fifth day of their sick leave.
Currently, employees in Germany can self-certify for the first two days of their sick leave. On the third day, they must get a sick note, which the doctor backdates to include the first two days. The doctor’s note is digitally transferred to the employee’s health insurer, who informs their employer.
According to KBV boss Andreas Gassen, the current system places an unnecessary burden on Germany’s already stretched statutory health insurance system; around 35 percent of the 116 million sick notes issued in Germany each year are a maximum of three days long.
Gassen also urged politicians to increase the number of days for which parents can certify that their children are sick. Currently, parents in Germany must provide their child’s school with a sick note from the first day their child is sick.
Gassen expects much resistance for sick note suggestion
It’s not the first time that Gassen has made such a suggestion, and the KBV boss doesn’t have high hopes that Germany’s CDU/CSU-SPD coalition government will listen to doctors.
Employees in Germany can already self-certify for longer than in most other European countries, and it looks like rules will get stricter in the future, rather than more relaxed. In April, the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition agreement outlined the government’s plan to scrap doctors’ notes issued via online platforms.
CEO of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände or BDA), Steffen Kampeter, also spurned Gassen’s idea, calling it a “red herring”.
Kampeter told the dpa that patients should be better managed instead. “This is the only way our healthcare system can remain efficient, effective, and affordable.”