Carola Reimann, the head of the AOK Federation, supports the continuation of telephone sick notes. She told newspapers of the Funke Media Group that these notes are highly useful, especially during infectious disease outbreaks, as they help prevent the spread of infections and protect medical personnel. Reimann noted that she had found no evidence of abusive use of the system and added that during the Covid period, there was no discernible change in the sick leave behavior of doctors.
Reimann also opposes the planned return to mandatory sick leave certificates (AU) starting from the first day of illness. She argued, “If a sick certificate is required from day one, it ties down an incredible amount of capacity that we do not have available for healthcare. That is ridiculous.” Currently, employers may already require employees to produce documentation from the first day. She believes that mandating it broadly would be incorrect.
Furthermore, Reimann warned against limiting the political debate over the number of sick days. She criticized the tendency for the discussion to devolve into statements about too many sick days or “lifestyle part-time.” She expressed great hope that a sober assessment of the proposal would prevent its implementation. Currently, electronic sick leave facilitates a more complete collection of incapacity data, meaning that statistics now look different than they did just a few years ago.
A few weeks ago, the coalition committee had agreed to introduce the mandatory sick leave certificate from the first day of illness and had also decided to abolish the telephone sick note system. The specific implementation of the new rule remains unclear despite the criticism directed at it. The telephone sick note currently applies to patients known personally and is limited to a maximum of one week in cases of infectious diseases.
