Electronic sick leave in 2021: what an employer should know

June 15, 2020

The pandemic has given a new impetus to the development of paperless document flow, and the topic of electronic hospital records, which had already become a little covered in dust, is again at the peak of relevance. If your organization has not yet switched to the new format, it’s time to take a closer look.

In this article, we will look step by step at how an organization can connect to the electronic sick leave system, how to use it in practice, and what kind of profit it will bring. We hope we can help you understand the topic and come out of the article with a clear understanding of whether the game is worth the candle or not.

Innovations in calculating ELN in 2021

Let's start with the basic data involved in processing certificates of incapacity for work, regardless of whether you are processing a paper certificate or a digital one - the changes will affect everyone.

In 2021, the minimum wage (hereinafter referred to as the minimum wage) was increased, and now it is 12,130 rubles.

The limit on an employee’s total income for the year, which forms the upper limit for sick leave payment, in 2021 amounted to 865,000 rubles.

Thus, the new limit values ​​when calculating the amount of sick leave benefits are the corridor: from 370.85 rubles. up to RUB 2,150.68 for 1 day of incapacity.

As for sick leave certificates in digital form, their processing now takes less time, since, unlike the paper equivalent, the Social Insurance Fund receives the electronic health certificate and processes it faster.

Read on in the article about how to set up electronic sick leave certificates in 2021 and how it will work.

Implementation in “1C: Salary and HR Management 8”

As noted above, employers can receive ENL data directly from the 1C program. Electronic sick leave and, most importantly, exchange with the Social Insurance Fund, are currently implemented in the 1C: Salaries and Personnel Management 8 program, ed. 3, starting from version 3.1.2.293.

List of minimum requirements:

1. Platform 8.3.10 or higher.
2. Configuration "1C: Salary and HR Management 8", ed. 3.1.2.293 and higher.
3. Connection to 1C-Reporting. The FSS certificate for ENL is configured automatically (without user participation) if 1C-Reporting is connected.

Document "Sick leave"

When filling out an electronic sick leave, you need to fill in basic information (Fig. 1):

1. Full name of the employee;
2. information about the organization (if the database maintains records for several organizations);
3. received ELN number.

Next, when you click on the “Receive data from the Social Insurance Fund” button, the sick leave sheet will be filled in with the ELN data received from the Social Insurance Fund. The program also automatically calculates the benefit amount based on information about the employee’s earnings and length of service. Information about the medical organization is also downloaded automatically; you can view it by clicking on the hyperlink, as in the screenshot below.

Using the 1C-Reporting service, you can create an electronic register. To do this, you need to go to the “Reporting, certificates” section – “1C-Reporting”.

When creating the registry, the user can choose how the tabular part of the registry will be filled in:

1. “Fill” button – the table is filled by default with ETNs that have not yet been sent;
2. “Add” button – providing the opportunity to select specific ENL to be sent to the FSS.

To see detailed information about the electronic sick leave, you need to double-click on the line with the electronic sick leave of interest - then an additional information form will open for viewing.

When posting a document, the program will automatically check that the required fields are filled in.

Finally, when you click on the “Send the register to the FSS” button, the register generated in the program will be sent to the FSS.

Actions of an employee to receive an electronic tax record

To receive an electronic sick leave certificate in 2021, the employee’s actions consist of providing written consent to each medical institution where the patient plans to be served for disability. When contacting a medical institution, the patient communicates his desire to issue a certificate of incapacity for work in digital form. The specified consent is standard, the template is downloaded from the FSS website and filled out according to the sample:

When the doctor considers it necessary to close the ELN, the patient is given a coupon indicating the parameters required by the employer for further processing. Losing a ticket does not entail any consequences. An employer can find a document by last name, SNILS number, and duration of illness.

If necessary, the patient registers in the FSS personal account, or on the government services website to check and upload hospital documents. If an employee does not want to register, then information on the sheet can be obtained by contacting the Social Insurance Fund.

Company management does not have the right to prohibit employees from receiving ELN. The company is obliged to make settings in the software and organize work with electronic sheets.

How does the ELN system work?

Let us dwell in more detail on the mechanism of functioning of electronic sick leave. Let's start with the fact that the exchange of information is supported by a single special electronic interaction system - the Unified IIS "Sotsstrakh" of the FSS of the Russian Federation. The main components of this system are the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, employers and medical institutions. It is also worth noting that the written consent of the employee is required to issue an ENL. Having received it, the doctor records this in the program and informs the applicant of his sick leave number. Later, this number must be transferred by the employee to the accountant or personnel officer at the place of work for calculating benefits and further filling out part of the sick leave.

In order to become a full-fledged participant in the ENL system, it is necessary to comply with the following points:

1. The organization needs to obtain an enhanced electronic signature compatible with the Social Insurance Unified Information System.
2. The organization must be registered on the Government Services Portal of the Russian Federation (gosuslugi.ru).
3. It is necessary to submit a written agreement on information interaction with the FSS.
4. First you need to open a personal account on the website cabinets.fss.ru.

You can receive an electronic signature in less than 2 days!

Submit your application

In addition, if you wish, you can register on the website of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation to quickly view the movement of electronic insurance using the “Account of the Insured Person” service.

Processing of electronic sick leave by the employer

The employer must hold an explanatory conversation with the team regarding the receipt and processing of the ENL. The employer needs technical readiness to receive an electronic tax record; it is better to set up the software in advance and train an accountant or other authorized representative.

Registration in the system

When the FSS introduced electronic sick leave certificates in 2021, updated functionality appeared for employers.

The personal account of employers provides access to the electronic personal information for all employees of the organization. The service responds to requests that arise from the employer, helps to understand how to fill out an electronic sick leave certificate to the employer and initiate its sending for verification and payment.

To work in the system, install FSS certificates at the workplace of the manager or the representative authorized to sign and send sick leave. Installation is carried out on the basis of GOST R 34.10-2012. You can download the certificate here.

Processing of electronic tax records is also assumed in the main accounting programs.

Registration of benefits

The mechanism for issuing benefits under ELN is simplified by reducing the bureaucratic burden - now there is no need to receive, process and organize the storage of a certificate of incapacity on paper. Digital data exchange reduces the time it takes to process sick leave and process payments.

Since January 1, 2021, a pilot project providing for the exclusion of the “offset scheme” of payments has already been operating in 50 regions of Russia. As part of the project, the amount of benefit payments generated from the Social Insurance Fund is transferred directly to the employee, bypassing the transfer of the organization. The territorial bodies of the Social Insurance Fund carry out their activities in relation to the registration of benefits and direct payments - on the basis of the resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 21, 2011. No. 294.

4>Receiving an E-Number from an employee

When the patient has regained his ability to work, the sick leave sheet is closed and a form is issued, which lists the necessary information about the patient, the duration of the illness, and the ENL number. A coupon with information is sent to the employer, using which you can find the ENL in your personal account and load it into the accounting program.

Electronic sick leave certificates in 2021 are more convenient for employers to process. Even without receiving an ELN coupon from the employee, the employer finds the document by last name, SNILS number, and duration of illness.

Actions of the employer after the closure of the ELN

After receiving the status “closed”, the policyholder receives access to editing. The “To be completed by the employer” tab requires entering data on average earnings, the employee’s length of service, period of illness, and cause of disability.

The program has a built-in automatic calculator that calculates the amount of benefits to be paid. Taking into account the entered data, the service breaks the amounts into two parts: at the expense of the employer and at the expense of the Social Insurance Fund.

There is no obligation to store electronic information on paper.

What has changed since July 1, 2021

Let's consider a standard situation - employee Ivanov I.I. is unwell, and he goes to a medical institution, where, after undergoing an examination, the doctor diagnoses him and writes out a certificate of incapacity for work, which contains information about how long the person is suspended from performing official duties, what the cause of the disease and the nature of the treatment. Next, after submitting the sheet to the HR department or accounting department of Romashka LLC, department employees add the necessary data to the sick leave section “To be filled out by the employer.” It is important that this section is completed manually in printed capital letters, and a ballpoint pen cannot be used. And after providing these documents, a decision will be made on payment of compensation.

Now, from July 1, 2021, after visiting a medical institution, Ivanov I.I. no longer receives a certificate of temporary incapacity for work - instead, he will be notified that the fact of visiting a doctor is registered in the database. Then the employing organization, using the number of its electronic certificate of incapacity for work, requests data from the Social Insurance Fund and pays for this sick leave, after which the accounting or personnel department employees will send information about the amount paid to the Social Insurance Fund and receive permission for compensation.

Based on the examples discussed above, we can draw the following conclusion: the main difference of the new system is that the employee is no longer a connecting element between the medical institution and the company for which he works.

Payment of benefits via electronic slip: who pays

If an electronic sick leave was generated in 2020

If an employee of the organization falls ill, then the organization takes over the payment of the ELN for 3 days, and from the 4th day the payment comes at the expense of the Social Insurance Fund. If there has been an accident at work, an occupational disease or an illness of a family member, then the Social Insurance Fund pays benefits from the date of opening the sick leave.

If the organization does not participate in the pilot project for direct payments, the organization pays the benefit in full and further reimburses the expenses incurred, in the amount established by law, from the Social Insurance Fund. Otherwise, the employer transfers only the proper amount, and part of the Social Insurance Fund is paid to the employee’s bank account.

Formation of ELN

Now let’s look at the scheme of interaction between a medical institution, an employer, an employee and the Social Insurance Fund in stages:

1. An employee, having contacted a medical institution, gives consent to the medical employee (as noted above - in writing) to generate an electronic sick leave.
2. The medical employee generates an electronic medical record (this feature is implemented in 1C: Medicine 8), signs it with the electronic signature of the doctor and the organization, and then provides the generated data to the Social Insurance Fund.
3. An employee who applies for an appointment is given a unique ERN number for subsequent transfer to the place of work.
4. The employing organization from 1C, using the ELN number provided by the employee, receives sick leave data from the Social Insurance Fund database.
5. In 1C, based on the data received and information previously entered in the program, temporary disability benefits are automatically calculated.
6. The employee is paid sick leave, and information about the amount of payment is sent to the Social Insurance Fund.
7. Partial payment for sick leave is received from the Social Insurance Fund (for regions of “direct” payments). Let us recall that since 2011, a large-scale reform of the social insurance system has been carried out in Russia, called the FSS pilot project. The project represents a change in payments for temporary disability, maternity leave, and the birth of a child. According to the pilot project, this is not done by the employer, but directly by a government agency - the Social Insurance Fund.

Peculiarities of the procedure for calculating benefits on the basis of ELN

Features in the processing of ELN are due to the possibility of electronic processing. There are a lot of ways to process ENL: through the Foundation’s personal accounts, through the government services website, using accounting programs participating in the implementation of the ENL implementation project. It simplifies the receipt of sick leave, the calculation of payments, and the transfer of the ELN register to the FSS gateway.

The discovery of an electronic tax record in the FSS service already indicates the authenticity of the issued sheet and is subject to calculation.

To effectively process electronic sick leave, train your team, show them actions that reduce labor costs - then the speed and accuracy of working with electronic sick leave will increase.

Insurance experience

Says Pavel Timokhin, head of the accounting consulting department: “Another innovation was the prepared bill, according to which the insurance period for calculating sick leave in 2021 may change. Officials propose to establish the following procedure for paying sick leave: for 15 or more years of experience - 100 percent of average earnings; with experience from 8 to 15 years - 80 percent; with up to 8 years of experience – 60 percent. At the same time, the Ministry of Labor proposes to increase the length of service gradually - from 2021 to 2028. According to the new rules, to obtain a full sick leave in 2017, you will need 9 years of experience. The list of periods that are included in the length of service for sick leave in 2021 is established by Article 16 of Law No. 255-FZ and paragraphs 2, 2.1 of the Rules approved by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated February 6, 2007 No. 91. For example, such periods include work time employment contracts (from the work book) and state or military service (fixed-term and contract), etc. But the time of work under a civil contract is not included in the insurance period. In cases where periods overlap each other, only one of them is taken into account.

The length of service for calculating sick leave in 2021 must be calculated on the day that precedes the incapacity for work.
The calculation sequence is as follows: determine the number of full years from January 1 to December 31, calculate the number of full calendar months (from the first to the last day), if they are not included in the full calendar years, calculate the total number of calendar days that are not included in the full calendar months . Convert them to months at the rate: 30 calendar days = 1 month, convert them to years at the rate of 12 months = 1 year and combine the total number of years, months and days. EXAMPLE OF CALCULATION OF EXPERIENCE FOR PAYMENT OF SICK
AWAY The employee’s work book indicates the periods of work: from March 23, 2011 to January 31, 2013; from February 1, 2014 to April 8, 2016; from June 1, 2021 to October 6, 2021. We will determine the length of service for paying sick leave in 2021. Number of full calendar years – 2 years – 2012 and 2015. The number of full calendar months is 40, of which: - in 2011, 9 - from April to December; - in 2013, 1 - January; - in 2014, 11 - from February to December; - in 2021, 10 - from January to March and from June to December; - in 2021, 9 - from January to September. The number of calendar days in partial months is 23, of which: 9 in March 2011; 8 in April 2021; 6 in October 2017. Let's convert 40 full months into years and months. We get 3 years and 4 months. The total length of service for calculating sick leave in 2021 is 5 years, 4 months and 23 days.

A few words about how to calculate the length of service of foreign workers. According to the provisions of the law, it is necessary to take into account the time of work of such employees abroad if an agreement on cooperation in the field of social protection is concluded between Russia and a foreign state. This conclusion follows from paragraph 6 of the Rules approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated February 6, 2007 No. 91. For example, take into account the insurance length of citizens of: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia (paragraph 2, paragraph 3, article 98 of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union dated May 29, 2014); Ukraine (paragraph 2 of article 6 of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Ukraine of January 14, 1993).

Determine the length of service based on the entries in the work book. In addition to it, the length of service for sick leave in 2021 will be confirmed by: an employment contract, if for some reason there are no entries in the work book or there is no book at all; military ID - time of military, law enforcement, fire fighting and other similar service; documents on payment of contributions - time of work as an entrepreneur.

Correcting errors in electronic sick notes

The human factor involves the occurrence of errors. Corrections are made to the sick leave statuses:

060 – sick leave filled by the employer.

070 – amounts payable have been accrued (for the “offset scheme”) or the “PVSO” register has been sent (for the pilot project for “direct payments”).

080 – amounts paid.

To make adjustments in your personal account, click the “Edit” button.

After which the necessary changes are made, the “Reason for corrections” and “Rationale for corrections” fields are filled in. Next, click “Save”.

To avoid errors, use the Manual Log, which displays the results of format and logical control and notifies you of the presence of errors.

When errors are detected by FSS employees, a notice regarding the benefit will appear in the manual.

Positive sides

What advantages does the innovation have? The positive aspects include:

• reduction of document flow and, consequently, reduction of the company’s expenses for paying for the services of archival organizations;
• due to the fact that data about insured persons is transferred directly between the employer, the medical organization and the Social Insurance Fund, information about the disease and other personal data about the employee will not be available to third parties;
• reducing the risk of paying for fake “sick leave” and reducing the timing of accrual of benefits in case of incorrect filling out of sick leave certificates;
• The Social Insurance Fund will be able to control the payment of benefits;
• employers will be able to avoid fines for accepting documents for payment that do not meet the requirements of the Social Insurance Fund, and specialists from the fund will have the opportunity to check the information provided by the employer.

The employer's obligation to join the electronic data exchange system

Federal Law of May 1, 2021 No. 86-FZ provides for the introduction of sick leave certificates in digital form.

The employer has an order to conduct clarifications with the staff, talk about the ELN and the right of employees to receive a certificate of incapacity for work in electronic form. However, not all companies have the technical equipment to process ELN. Then the employer can only ask his employees to receive sick leave on paper, but has no right to force them to do so.

An employer should think about joining the information space, as it provides benefits. ELN cannot be forged, there is no need to store it on paper, and there is no need to track the ink color and letter size. The built-in calculator will make the calculations, and the Social Insurance Fund will quickly receive the completed ENL and promptly check and transfer the benefits.

Negative sides

But it's not that simple. Where there are advantages, there will certainly be disadvantages. I would include the following among them:

• software and computer equipment that supports data transfer to the FSS may fail, this will definitely happen at the stage of technology implementation;
• The FSS will need bank details to transfer sick leave; this information will be provided by the organization when collecting applications from employees and, as a result, this will cause one-time, but serious time costs;
• in the case of a large staff, there may be a need for additional employees, such as programmers, etc., therefore, companies may have new expenses for wages and insurance premiums;
• inability to reduce the amount of contributions by the amount of benefits, since the latter are paid by the Social Insurance Fund.

Advantages and disadvantages

Pavel Timokhin, head of the accounting consulting department, weighed the pros and cons of launching an electronic sick leave system in Russia and compiled a list of advantages and disadvantages.

Arguments for

• For the patient, obtaining sick leave is simplified: you don’t have to come to the hospital, but simply call the doctor and inform him that you are going to work.
• Enormous savings of personal time for both the patient and the doctor. As a result, instead of wasting precious minutes on bureaucracy, the health worker will devote them to the patient.
• There is no need to store paper like the apple of your eye. The patient will not have sheets on his hands that cannot be lost, stained or bent.
• There is no longer any need for the employer to maintain a real archive of documents and store paper sick leave - now all information is received electronically and is easily processed.
• The new electronic sick leave system will help eliminate abuses when issuing sick leave certificates. However, for some this is an argument against it.
• If there is a single information base, neither doctors nor patients will need to re-enter the same data about the owner of the certificate of incapacity each time.
• Employers will no longer be able to delay sick pay. The law will establish clear deadlines within which the employer will have to pay the employee. The Social Security Fund will be able to easily track its implementation.
• Calculations for benefit payments can be checked using a special software calculator.

Arguments against

• Doctors have to learn new programs. This is not easy for older people to do, which can lead to their removal from work or errors in filling out sick leave.
• No one has canceled the possibility of an error, equipment failure, etc. At the same time, the operation of electronics can also be influenced by the human factor.
• Reorganization of some departments and structures responsible for working with electronic sick leave is required. This can be expensive and time-consuming.
• Traditionally, the transition to high-tech tools is associated with failures in the system at the time of its launch; most likely, electronic sick notes will not be an exception.
• Overpayments or underpayments of contributions may occur due to technical system failures or operator errors;
• None of the parties (medical institution, company, employee) is left with “paper” evidence of the employee’s illness, which may cause disputes in the future;
• Concerns arise about the safety of data, because if a hacker attack is carried out on the electronic sick leave system, it will be very difficult to restore the lost data;
• A similar problem may arise with the openness of information about patients, because with automation it is necessary to maintain medical confidentiality and prevent information about diseases and diagnoses of patients from leaking into the network.