Krankmeldung Elektronisch | in English is a notice of Electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU) that will begin to be enacted soon in Germany.

Those with statutory health insurance should no longer have to send a “yellow note” to their health insurance company. This should be taken over digitally by the practices. But the official launch has been postponed. Ask your practice how they handle it!

In summary:

• In the future, sick leave will be transmitted digitally from the doctor’s office to the health insurance company.
• However, because not all practices have the necessary technology, the official start has been postponed.
• So ask whether your practice has the necessary technology.

Sick leave for people with statutory health insurance is going digital: In the future, medical practices will send the certificates of incapacity to work (AU) online to the health insurance companies. The practices should originally have been obliged to do this since October 1, 2021. This date was initially postponed to January 1, 2022, but was not kept.

According to the Federal Ministry of Health, a good 20 percent of the certificates are currently (March 2022) transmitted electronically from the practices to the cash registers. This is done via the so-called telematics infrastructure in healthcare. Be sure to ask your practice how they handle it! If she prints the “yellow note” on paper, you have to send it to your health insurance company yourself.

Obligation to submit to the health insurance company

According to the Central Association of Health Insurance Funds , around 77 million people are unable to work every year. Those with statutory health insurance are obliged to report sick leave to their health insurance company in good time so that they do not later lose any entitlement to sick pay. So that you do not suffer any disadvantages, you should always send the certificate of incapacity for work (AU) to your insurance company until the complete digitization. There is an initial ruling that the delayed implementation of the electronic AU cannot be at the expense of the insured. However, this decision is not yet final.

Same schedule for e-prescription

Prescriptions should also be issued primarily digitally – many practices also lack the necessary technology for this. The same schedule applies here as for sick leave. There are already practices and pharmacies where digital transmission works. In the event of technical difficulties, the pink paper prescription may be issued until the end of June 2022.

The eAU has already been postponed several times, mainly due to technical problems and a lack of equipment in the practices. After October 2021, it became January 2022, and the Federal Ministry of Health overturned this date as well. In principle, however, doctors are legally obliged to introduce electronic sick leave and e-prescriptions together with the necessary technology in their practices. The offer is now expected to be available nationwide from mid-2022. The next stage of the eAU, digital forwarding from health insurance companies to employers , has been postponed from July 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023