Let's look at how to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate and how risky it is to receive the document retroactively

Why check

A certificate of incapacity for work officially confirms absence from work for a valid reason.
Illness of an employee or members of his family, long-term treatment, operations, restorative procedures, rehabilitation - all these are grounds for issuing sick leave. Temporary disability forms are issued only by official medical institutions - public hospitals and private clinics that are licensed to issue sick leave. And employers have the opportunity to check sick leave online by barcode or number. A sick leave certificate is the only document that exempts you from work and compensates for the costs of treatment. Employees try to formalize it not only for its intended purpose, but also for their own benefit. It looks like this: the employee negotiates with a doctor he knows so that he can take sick leave for the days he is absent (not due to illness). This option is possible and not even prohibited, but not all doctors are ready to take such a risk.

There is now an option for issuing fake sick leave. They promise that it looks like the real thing. But that's not true. An experienced accountant will distinguish a fake from the original. If visually everything is in order, the received form is identical to the verified certificates of incapacity for work and the specialist does not have any suspicions, then the document is not checked. But you should not trust only your feelings; it is advisable to check the sick leave certificate for authenticity according to all the rules. If anything confuses you, then run a check. Just hurry up - the accountant has 10 days to send the calculation, which means you can check it within this period.

Electronic sick leave certificates and registers issued in those regions where the pilot project operates are not checked. In such cases, the sick leave is sent directly to the Social Insurance Fund, where it will be verified by the Social Insurance Fund experts themselves.

Verification methods

Through the FSS website by document number

A certificate of incapacity for work is the reason for paying money to an employee at his place of work, so the HR department should be aware of how to verify the authenticity of this document. The authenticity of a document can be verified in various ways, but the most popular way is to obtain information on the FSS website.

Important! Those individuals who falsify sick leave certificates cannot record the necessary information in a special database. For this reason, if the required code is not in the database, this indicates that the document is far from the original.

All information is updated every month, and the personnel department employee must check the accuracy of sick leave every day.

How can you check the originality of the provided document? Today it is possible to check the authenticity of a sheet by its number via the Internet . The HR department employee simply needs to dial the number that is located at the top of the sick leave sheet on the verification website. If the sick leave number is recorded in the database, then the document is not a fake. This procedure is quite accurate, but it is recommended to combine it with other verification options.

Determination by visual and tactile properties of the sheet

The numbering is done in black and it has personal protection. Most HR employees can determine by touch or visually the originality of a document. If each number is determined by touch (the number itself is quite convex), then the certificate of incapacity for work is original. If not a single symbol is tactilely felt, then the sheet is not real. That is, it is a fake.

This number can be used to contact the Social Insurance Fund and a medical institution. But there are also additional ways to determine the authenticity of a document , which can be identified from the information on the sheet.

Visiting the clinic

The head of the organization in which the holder of the sick leave certificate works has the right to contact the medical institution to verify the authenticity of the document. As a rule, sick leave is issued at the clinic, but there are also situations when this happens at the hospital.

Important! If the clinic refuses to provide information upon request, then it is recommended to contact the FSS.

To complete an application according to all the rules, you must have the following information:

1. 
   Employee information.

2. Name of the medical institution.
3. Document creation date.
4. Legal information about the enterprise.
5. The boss is required to sign the document.
6. A stamp must be affixed.

After entering all the information, the main text is written. It should include a request to verify the authenticity of the certificate of incapacity for work.

Request to the FSS

How can you check the certificate of incapacity for work in the Social Insurance Fund? To do this, it is necessary to make a request for an inspection in free form . In this request, you must indicate the details of the hospital or other medical institution indicated on the sick leave certificate.

In addition, you must provide the original sick leave certificate and send it to the Social Insurance Fund. If, in the opinion of the FSS, the document turns out to be a fake, they must provide a notification in writing.

Ways to check

There is no single verification methodology. There are many ways to spot a fake. Some of them give clear results immediately, others require time. If an accountant has the opportunity, it is better to use not one, but several verification procedures. To identify a fake, you can:

• conduct an analysis of the visual compliance required by this strict reporting form;
• contact the medical institution that issued the form;
• check the certificate of incapacity for work by number online through the territorial branch of the Social Insurance Fund;
• send a letter to the regional Social Insurance Fund with a request to verify sick leave;
• check by barcode: run your finger over the surface of the barcode or illuminate the form in an ultraviolet lamp.

The most effective way is to control counterfeits through the Social Insurance Fund. Sometimes only external verification is enough; counterfeit forms differ significantly from the original ones.

How to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate

Counterfeit ballots, like everything in Russia in general, come in varying quality. Some are determined already when picking up a copy and determining the quality of the paper, while others require detailed examination, including under ultraviolet light. Still others are completely indistinguishable from real ones and, strictly speaking, cannot be called fakes at all. These can only be determined by sending a request.

Original new sick leave certificate

The original newsletter has certain features, knowing which, you can understand that the employee is offering a fake:

• paper color. The original blank is light blue, the lightest shade in the center, the edges are more blue with a slight violet tone;
• the cells are yellowish (counterfeits are most often beige or white);
• the seals of doctors, institutions are clear, stand in the right places and coincide with what is written in the columns;
• the presence of hidden symbols, water symbols in the light, microletters “Certificate of Incapacity for Work”;
• all the names of the institutions are the same (fake ones often have different names);
• The barcode is determined by the AWP program, but not for Ersatz;
• the original form is denser and more difficult to crumple;
• under an ultraviolet lamp, areas that look yellow and blue in normal light acquire green and red colors, respectively;
• When exposed to infrared light, the text disappears. If the letters are still visible, the form is fake.

Important! But if a binary code is not present on the form, this alone does not mean that it is “unreal.”

Verifying the authenticity of a sick leave certificate using ultraviolet light

Instructions: check by external signs

Visual verification is an instant identification of authenticity at the time of receipt of a sick leave certificate. This is done at work - in the office of an accountant or director. Here's how to check sick leave at work:

• compare the submitted certificate of incapacity for work with those forms that were accepted and paid for by the Social Insurance Fund (that is, which are proven to be genuine);
• check all required attributes - watermarks, microfibers, microtexts;
• shine the document through ultraviolet light (you can use a device to check money);
• check the barcode;
• try the thickness of the paper.

Certificates of incapacity for work are strict reporting forms. Its form was approved by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development No. 347n dated April 26, 2011.

They are printed in a special printing house, so they are all identical and have certain visual features. The rules for filling out the sheet are uniform and enshrined at the legislative level (Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development No. 624n dated June 29, 2011). Here's what to check immediately upon receiving the document:

The sick leave certificate has a high protection class (class B), so checking its authenticity by visual signs is not difficult. But this is not always enough. To identify authenticity, use special services of the FSS.

Visual method

It’s good when the sick leave presented is not the first one in the company. You just take it and compare it with the documents that have already been verified, the form itself, the stamps, the manner of filling it out. But sometimes there is nothing to compare with.

Then this table will help:

And one more note: as a rule (90%) of sick leave certificates issued in a clinic are initially issued for a short period of time, and then extended as necessary (the date of issue of the certificate coincides with the date of the onset of the patient’s incapacity for work). A sick leave certificate issued in a hospital is filled out in one line if treatment was not continued elsewhere (the date of issue of the sick leave certificate corresponds to the date of discharge of the patient).

Instructions: request to a medical institution

Here is another option on how to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate through a request to a medical institution:

1. If this is a commercial clinic, call the Social Insurance Fund (or the clinic itself) and clarify whether this healthcare organization has the right to issue sick leave.
2. If so, call the private clinic itself (contact the attending physician) and find out whether a particular patient was treated in the organization.
3. If the clinic refuses to provide information (and this is quite possible), citing the confidentiality of the relationship between the patient and the doctor, form an official request addressed to the chief physician of the institution. Be sure to attach a copy of your sick leave certificate.
4. The organization is obliged to respond to an official request, so the accountant is simply waiting for a response.
5. In the case of a public clinic or hospital, the procedure is similar. The only difference is that budgetary medical institutions are more willing to provide information, because they understand the risks.

Verifying the authenticity of a sick leave certificate at a medical institution is far from the most effective option. The procedure is long, and scammers have learned to bypass basic difficulties when interacting with government clinics.

The importance of checking a sick leave certificate for authenticity

There are times when you don’t particularly trust sick leave.

Example: two days before the end of the next vacation, an employee with someone submits to the accounting department a sick leave certificate and a request to extend the vacation for a couple of weeks.

Example 2: an employee submits a letter of resignation and the next day reports that he has been issued sick leave for a period of 10-12 days. How to believe in these coincidences? In our time of free enterprise, when everyone tries to use their talents and opportunities, sick leave has also become a source of bargaining and counterfeiting.

So, there are two types of “fake” sick leave:

• 1st sick leave issued by doctors of a medical institution out of friendship or for money. Formally, this is an absolutely legal document. It will be original from the point of view of the Social Insurance Fund and tax authorities.
• The 2nd sick leave, purchased without going through a medical institution, is a fake. In this case, there may also be two options: real, but stolen forms, filled out by the person offering his services; completely false document.

It is very important to determine the authenticity of a sick leave certificate in a timely manner:

• Firstly , the territorial branch of the Social Insurance Fund to which your company is assigned will not accept sick leave with any violations for financing. You will simply pay for the employee’s absenteeism “out of your own pocket.”
• Secondly , you cannot indicate the amount of this sick leave on the expense side of the balance sheet in order to reduce the tax base. Therefore, pay a large (i.e., excess) amount of tax to the budget.

So how to check sick leave, what verification methods exist?

Instructions: check by number on the FSS website

The fastest and, in fact, the most accurate way is to check the sick leave certificate online by number. Check the authenticity of the certificate of incapacity for work on the official website of the Social Insurance Fund. The bottom line is that the Social Insurance Fund maintains a register of stolen or lost sick leave certificates. If the certificate of incapacity being checked is included in this list, it is fake. For policyholders submitting reports via telecommunications channels, such authentication will take a couple of minutes.

Here's how to check sick leave by number online on the FSS website:

1. Follow the link to the official website of the FSS.
2. Log in to the personal account of the insured organization.
3. In your electronic account, enter the employee’s slip number and SNILS.
4. If the sick leave is genuine, it will be displayed after the search.
5. If the policyholder maintains electronic document flow with the Social Insurance Fund, then he fills out the certificate of incapacity for work in the “To be filled out by the employer” field. The specialist must keep all the information, sign the digital signature and send it to the Social Insurance Fund.

This check is always up to date and accurate. But there is another way to check the authenticity of a sick leave through online resources. On the same official website of the FSS there is a list of invalid and missing sick leave certificates.

The user enters this section and downloads a table with a register of lost data.

If after entering the first nine digits a match is found, the certificate of incapacity for work is fake.

For your convenience, we offer to download the current FSS table.

Checking sick leave through a database of lost and stolen forms

If you still have doubts, check the document number. The Social Insurance Fund has created a special service for checking sick leave, available to every visitor. The file contains a list of numbers, stolen or lost documents.

Although sick leave forms (more precisely: certificates of incapacity for work) are documents of strict accountability, there is always room for exceptions and violations.

To do this check, you just need to follow the link and download the table. Next, compare the first 9 digits of the checked sick leave with the list of stolen ones. If the numbers match, this is a “fake”.

Unfortunately, the service has some drawbacks: you need to download tables, and the speed of data updating leaves much to be desired.

What to do if the check on the FSS website does not produce results

If the electronic verification did not display data on the authenticity of the sick leave, but you still doubt that this is the original, contact the FSS. This method is the most correct. FSS experts will contact the medical institution themselves and check the authenticity of the certificate of incapacity for work. There is only one downside - data analysis will take a long time, and the accountant is obliged to pay the employee sick leave within 10 days.

The appeal is drawn up on company letterhead indicating the organizational details of the policyholder. The form is free. One of the mandatory conditions is to include in the content of the letter information about the employee, sick leave number and the medical organization that issued the form. The certificate of incapacity for work itself is attached to the letter, and not a copy, but the original.

Official request

A more reliable way is to send an official request to the territorial division of the fund in which the policyholder is registered. It is drawn up on company letterhead, has an incoming number and the seal of the organization. The request is transmitted directly through a department employee or sent by registered mail.

It is interesting how the FSS checks sick leave certificates, in relation to which there are doubts about the authenticity. It forms an appeal with a scan of the document to the medical institution where it was issued in order to receive confirmation of the data entered in the form. This method is the most effective, but checking sick leave takes too much time, which the employer does not have.

What to do if the sick leave is fake

If you submit a fake sick leave, there are two scenarios:

1. If the forgery is detected immediately and payment for such a certificate of incapacity does not go through. Everything is simple here. The organization loses nothing, declares the forgery at its own discretion, and punishes the culprit at its discretion.
2. If the accountant processed and paid for a fake sick leave. Usually such violations are detected by the FSS. If payment is made, the FSS will simply compensate the policyholder’s expenses. The employer recovers damages from the employee, but the amount of recovery cannot exceed 20% of his earnings. Anything more is collected through the court.

What to do with the violator depends on the decision of management. If the manager is loyal to the employee, he will limit himself to a warning. You cannot be fired for providing a fake sick leave certificate.

Signs of a fake

Authorized bodies constantly monitor the lawful issuance of certificates of incapacity for work. But still, every manager must monitor the documents provided, because employees of some medical institutions may not register certificates of incapacity for work in the database.

Any employer should be able to distinguish a real sick leave certificate from a fake document.

A fake document will differ significantly from the original in the following ways:

• There will be no watermark on a fake sick leave certificate.
• There will be no fibers as protection.
• Departments for extending sick leave by a doctor will be white.
• The paper used for the counterfeit form differs significantly in quality from the original version.
• The presence of serious errors in the certificate of incapacity for work. These include the absence of length of stay in the medical institution, the doctor’s initials, or they are present, but this doctor does not work in the clinic.
• The name of the medical institution is incorrect.
• If an accountant tries to enter the document number into a special database, the certificate of incapacity for work will not be determined.
• The seal may not belong to this clinic.

What is the penalty for falsifying sick leave and recording it?

The organization faces nothing but uncompensated losses from payments based on a fake certificate of incapacity for work. They are collected over a long period from the employee’s salary or in a lump sum through the court.

The employee committed fraudulent acts, so the employer has the right to write a statement about forgery of documents. Such offenses are subject to criminal liability (Article 159.2, 327 of the Criminal Code) in the form of a large fine or imprisonment for up to 2 years. But such punishment is initiated only by the leader. If a fake sick leave gets into the hands of FSS employees, they have the right to contact the police and demand the initiation of a criminal case.

Drawing up an application to the clinic or to the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation to verify the authenticity of the certificate of incapacity for work

Because every doctor's form is "under supervision" and they are all subject to reporting

, then the best way to check the authenticity of the certificate of incapacity for work is
to leave an application
at the clinic or at the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation. A sample request to the clinic about the authenticity of the sick leave contains the following information:

• information about the organization that is the insured - full name, INN and KPP numbers, as well as registration number in the Social Insurance Fund, address of the legal entity, telephone number;
• information about the medical document itself - in what period it was issued, information about the patient and medical institution, personal number on the form;
• where the inspection result will be sent and how exactly the employer wants to receive it - by letter in an envelope or an electronic report;
• attachments - the attachment usually includes the original of a dubious certificate of incapacity for work, which must be verified;
• signature of the supervisor, as well as the date of execution of the application.

The right to demand such information is enshrined in Art. 59 of the Federal Law of November 21, 2011 No. 323-FZ “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation

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