Business lawyer > Labor law > Sick leave, benefits > Error in the name of the organization on the sick leave: we receive benefits
In case of illness of an employee, the company has the right to reimburse a certain amount from the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation. The document is filled out partly by hand and partly electronically, and therefore errors in the document, in particular in the name of the organization, are quite common. In this article we will look at what is considered a mistake in the name of the organization on a sick leave certificate and how to correct it.
Error in the name of the organization on the sick leave certificate
Why is there an error in the name of the organization on the sick leave certificate? First of all, due to the fact that the therapist writes the name only from the patient’s words, and the name of the employing company is sometimes not only difficult to write, but also difficult to pronounce. Because of this, doctors make mistakes, and paying benefits using Social Insurance Fund funds can be problematic.
Alternatively, if in doubt, the doctor leaves the field for entering the company name blank, leaving all responsibility for filling it out on the patient or on the accountant, who will subsequently have to check the sick leave.
Errors that are made when filling out this type of paper can be divided into three groups:
Filling out sick leave
- errors that must be corrected
- errors to be corrected depending on the situation
- errors that do not need correction
Let's look at each of the groups to determine which of them the error in spelling the name of the organization belongs to, as well as what other types of errors are made when issuing sick leave:
- Bugs that need to be corrected. If you do not correct these mistakes, then the probability that you will be denied benefits is 95%. Such serious errors are: lack of indication of whether this is the original document or its copy; incorrect indication of the patient's name; incorrect indication of the cause of disability; absence of a seal of a medical institution and a doctor’s signature. As you can see, there is no error in the name of the organization on the sick leave, which means that it does not always need to be corrected.
- Errors that need to be corrected depending on the situation. Such errors include inaccuracies in the name of the organization, as well as in the position of the doctor. We will consider types of errors in the name of the organization below; as for the position of a doctor, its correction depends on the diagnosis.
- Errors that do not need to be corrected include all other types of errors. If they are admitted, the likelihood that the Social Insurance Fund will refuse social benefits is very small.
New rules for issuing sick leave in 2022
The Ministry of Health issued order No. 925n dated September 1, 2020 “On approval of the procedure for issuing and processing certificates of incapacity for work, including the procedure for generating certificates of incapacity for work in the form of an electronic document.”
Document No. 59812 was registered with the Ministry of Justice on September 14, 2020 and officially published. It came into force on December 14, 2020. The changes are aimed at simplifying the issuance of sick leave in the face of the threat of the spread of dangerous diseases, especially coronavirus infection. Medical institutions were allowed to issue sick leave certificates remotely, after the patient contacted a therapist via chat or video call, that is, using telemedicine technologies. Similarly, if necessary, a certificate of long-term incapacity for work for pregnancy and childbirth is filled out. A medical institution’s sick leave certificate was required to be issued in the form of an electronic file and only duplicated on paper if necessary. In the future, the Ministry of Labor plans to completely abandon paper sick leave. For now, as an exception, they will be issued:
- pregnant women who were dismissed due to the liquidation of an enterprise, who lost their individual entrepreneur status or resigned as a notary (lawyer);
- unemployed citizens who need to confirm that they did not come to the employment service on the appointed day for a good reason.
Parents of preschool children attending kindergarten are given sick leave immediately for the entire quarantine period if it is declared in kindergarten.
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Features of filling out sick leave
Before we look at how to correctly write the name of an organization, let's find out how to fill out a sick leave certificate.
Entering data
So, to begin with, on the front side of the document in the first paragraph, a duplicate is written down and given to the patient, or this is the primary sheet. If this is a duplicate, then in the line next to the checkbox you should put the number of the sheet on which the duplicate is being made.
Next, fill in the name of the medical institution, and also indicate the date of issue of the sheet. Then the date of onset of the illness and separately the date when the person became incapacitated is entered. Disability codes can be viewed on the back of the document.
It is advisable, but not necessary, to supply the hospital's OGRN. If you or the doctor do not know him (which happens extremely rarely), then you can find out the OGRN on the official website of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
After the OGRN, the gender of the patient should be indicated, as well as his date of birth. Very often, doctors make the mistake of putting the date when the disability began instead of the date of birth.
“Date 1” is filled in if at some point in time the cause of the illness was changed or, for example, the day of birth is entered here if the patient is a pregnant woman. “Date 2” is needed to enter the end time of something, for example, a trip, if the sheet is issued for this purpose.
The “Care” block is filled out when the paper is issued for the purpose of caring for a sick person.
This is followed by cells to be filled in, such as time spent in hospital treatment, disability group and other medical data. The duration of the disease, what its final result is, as well as information about the attending physician is included in the block next to it.
The spine of the sheet itself must be filled out based on the information provided above. Only such data as the medical history number and the patient’s signature are added to it.
What does the section of the sick leave sheet that is filled out by the employer look like?
In the event of temporary loss of ability to work due to illness, injury, deployment, pregnancy and childbirth, the employee has the right to count on the continuation of earnings during forced absence from work. To confirm valid reasons and receive temporary disability benefits at a medical organization, a sick leave certificate is filled out.
The form consists of three parts:
- The first part is filled out by the medical organization.
- The second part is filled out by the employer.
The employer’s task is to correctly fill out his part of the disability certificate form.
You should know! Currently, many employees are issued electronic sick leave certificates. In this case, there is no need to duplicate the sick leave on a paper form. All information is entered by the medical organization and the employer through a special program. To do this, the employer needs to know the number of the certificate of incapacity for work, which is communicated to the employee by the attending physician.
How to write the name of the organization on a sick leave certificate
The name of the organization is a point where it is advisable to avoid mistakes. Let's look at how to fill it out correctly.
- If the name of the organization is in abbreviated form, it is better to enter it.
- If the organization does not have a short name, then its full name should be entered.
Name of organization on sick leave - The name is entered along with the organizational form, for example, “Romashka LLC”.
- If the name of the organization has too many characters (more than 29), then you should enter an arbitrary abbreviated name of the company; it is not necessary to submit information to the Social Insurance Fund about the existence of an alternative name.
- Quotes are not used when indicating the name of the organization. Also, do not use periods, commas, dashes and other punctuation marks, even if they are provided for in the title.
- Although the use of punctuation marks is undesirable when indicating the name of the company, there is still no need to redo the sick leave sheet because the receptionist or doctor added an extra dash or comma. The FSS does not have the right to refuse to pay benefits based on a sick leave issued in this way.
- In no case should you go beyond the boundaries to write the company name, and you should not write letters in such a way that they come into contact with the boundaries. This rule does not apply to all columns of the sheet; for example, the employer’s seal can sometimes go beyond the boundaries of the field allocated for its affixing. Sometimes the FSS pays attention to this, however, most often problems can be avoided.
- The abbreviated name of the company is always agreed upon with the Social Insurance Fund, as well as with the employees of the organization, so it is preferable to indicate it in the column for the company name.
Which pen should I use to fill it out?
Black ink is used. Order No. 624n of the Ministry of Health and Social Development allows filling out a sick leave sheet only with a gel, capillary or fountain pen. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 2015 came to the conclusion that the use of a ballpoint pen when filling out is only a technical defect that does not affect the payment of benefits. The main thing is that using a ballpoint pen does not lead to illegibility of the writing. The RF Armed Forces ordered the Social Insurance Fund to accept for payment the sick leave, which the doctor filled out with a ballpoint pen. In this case, the employer, noticing the error, contacted the medical institution for a duplicate. Despite the court's approval, in order to avoid disputes with the FSS, it is advisable not to use a ballpoint pen to fill out forms.
Sample of filling out a sick leave certificate by an employer in 2021
How to correct a mistake on a sick leave certificate
So, before correcting the error, you should find out how serious it is. So, if the title contains quotation marks, dashes or commas, there is no need to correct this. The same can be said if the name of the organization contains its full name, a short name, or even an abbreviation. However, the error will have to be corrected if the name of the company is written incorrectly, because in this case the employee will simply be denied payment of benefits. Let's look at how you can and can't fix it:
Sick leave
- You cannot cover up a record in which an error has been made with a proofreader.
- To indicate that an entry is invalid, simply carefully cross it out.
- The correction is made on the reverse side of the paper. If the doctor wrote the wrong name of the organization, then you should write the correct name on a blank field on the back of the document and make a note: “The correct entry is confirmed by a signature” and sign either the head or the accountant of the organization. You can also use the inscription “Believe the Corrected”, however, the first option is preferable according to the above-mentioned Order.
What else you need to know
For some errors, you should contact the clinic instead of trying to correct them yourself. For example, if the document contains the incorrect surname of the patient, then such a sick leave certificate requires mandatory re-registration, that is, the issuance of a duplicate for it. However, if the document is filled out in words and not in block letters, as required by law, then it makes no sense to re-issue it: the Social Insurance Fund will pay benefits based on such a sheet.
Nuances of sick leave
There is an opinion that to be sure, it is necessary to put two signatures on the sick leave: the manager and the chief accountant. However, according to the above-mentioned Order, this is not so. One signature will be enough, and if you put two, the FSS may consider it a mistake, so it’s better not to risk it.
When can another person sign if there is no opportunity to sign a manager or accountant? First of all, anyone who has a notarized power of attorney to sign such documents can sign a sick leave certificate. This could be the financial director, the general manager of the company, or any other person.
In no case should a sick leave certificate be signed by a person who has the authority to sign it only on the basis of an order. A power of attorney, and preferably a notarized one, must be in any case. The seal of an organization does not have to be of the highest order. It will be enough to put a stamp from the accounting department or the personnel department.
Another common case of errors in a hospital document is confusion with the start date of work and the non-insurance period.
Thus, the start date of work is usually considered to be the day when the employee must come to work if his employment contract is canceled and if an illness, injury or other reason for visiting a doctor occurred between the date of signing and the day of cancellation of the contract. In all other cases, this column must remain empty, otherwise it can be considered an error.
So, you need to be very careful when filling out a sick leave certificate, since almost all payments from the Social Insurance Fund, including temporary disability benefits, as well as all types of payments received by women who have recently given birth to a child, may depend on the correctness of the data.
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Which organizations have the right to issue sick leave?
The registration and issuance of certificates of incapacity for work are strictly regulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation, namely:
- Federal Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2006 “On compulsory insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with maternity”;
- Order of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated January 29, 2004 No. 18/29 “On approval of the Instructions on the procedure for providing sick leave certificates with forms, their recording and storage”;
- Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n “On approval of the procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work.”
A certificate of temporary incapacity for work is issued to the insured persons:
- citizens of the Russian Federation;
- foreigners or stateless persons permanently or temporarily residing on the territory of the Russian Federation (Article 2 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2016).
Sick leave is issued by medical workers who have the right to do so, namely:
- attending physicians of medical organizations;
- paramedics and dentists of medical organizations;
- attending physicians at research institute clinics, including clinics at research institutes of prosthetics or prosthetics.
