Controls of the justification of prescribing sick leave, which have been intensified in recent months by the commissions of the Ministry of Health and the Health Insurance Fund, are already producing concrete results, it was announced at the session of the National Commission for the Control of Temporary Incapacity for Work, which was chaired by Srđan Pavićević, Deputy Prime Minister for Labour, Education, Health and Social Affairs.
Presenting the specific results of the controls, the state secretary in the Ministry of Health Milena Cojic said that it was established that there are quality legal frameworks for checking sick leave while it is still ongoing, but that the problem of the previous commissions was that they considered requests for checking sick leave that they received from employers, which have already been discontinued, where it is difficult to determine whether were justified. That's why, as Cojić explained, the commissions gave priority to the requests where verification of sick leave that is currently current is requested.
"As the control of temporary incapacity for work began, the figures show that the number of open sick days is decreasing. Based on the comparison we made, we found that there was a drastic drop in the number of sick days in the first two quarters of this year compared to 2023. Specifically, for the first quarter of 2023, the number of days spent on commission sick days, longer than 30 days, amounted to - 582.272, and for the same quarter of this year it was 168392 days, which is a significant decrease. Also, in the second quarter of 2023, the number of days spent on commission sick days, longer than 30 days, amounted to 183577, and in the same quarter of this year, 48.029 days. Therefore, compared to last year, the number of days for commission sick days was reduced by almost half in the first quarter, and by two thirds in the second quarter. Which means that there is a reduction in long-term sick leave," said Cojić.
According to her, the number of days for short sick leave, which are prescribed on the proposal of the chosen doctor for the first and second quarters of this year, shows a tendency to decrease, that is, from 48.000 days to 45.000 in the first quarter and from 35.000 days to 28.000 days in the second quarter.
The Ministry of Health, as stated in the press release, has three councils, one committee consisting of a lawyer and two doctors, which checks the work of the Health Fund committee, and the Fund committee checks the work of doctors who approve sick leave for up to 30 days. "The commissions of the Fund initiated controls, and their results, after the patients were examined and determined to be fit for work, were the closure of those sick days," it added.
Director of the Health Insurance Fund Vuk Kadic stated that, as far as sick leave longer than 30 days is concerned, the commission has been reorganized, which they believe will have an effect by the end of the year.
"The reorganization started with the Podgorica commissions, and if it proves to be effective, it will be implemented in other cities as well. The essence of the reorganization is to create commissions that are closely specialized, where certain specialties will be grouped into certain groups and commissions and certain types of sick leave will be sent to those commissions for verification. Also, an initiative was launched to start educating elected doctors about their rights and obligations from September of this year, because the Law on Compulsory Health Insurance stipulates that a general practitioner opens and closes sick leave, not a specialist, but he makes a recommendation. Which means that he is the only person who is responsible for the temporary inability to work. What will be emphasized during the training is that general practitioners will be able to, if they suspect that the sick leave is not adequate, form a commission on their own initiative, composed of specialists who will check whether the insured is justified on sick leave," announced Kadić.
At the session, it was stated as a conclusion that, despite the fact that the abuse of sick leave is difficult to prove, the controls that have been started have given the first results and visible effects, as well as that it is necessary to carry out a detailed analysis of all the controls carried out.
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