Incapacity to work

Save time and effort with the eAU

The electronic certificate of incapacity for work – eAU for short – is your certificate of incapacity for work in digital form. Doctor’s surgeries can send us the eAU directly online. This makes it much easier for you and saves you time and postage costs. It is important that you register your employer with your place of work or the Federal Employment Agency (BA) as usual. Your employer or the BA can then request the eAU from us and will also receive the period of sick leave digitally.

Eine Frau liegt mit einer Erkältung krank im Bett.

Your benefits with eAU:

Simple and fast: your doctor’s surgery simply transmits your certificate of incapacity for work digitally.

In the Meine SBK app, you can conveniently view the electronic certificates of incapacity for work that you have received.

For longer illnesses, we will support you with sickness benefit.

The eAU: how the transmission works

All doctors’ surgeries send us your eAU digitally. This eliminates the need for you to send it by post, saving you time and money.

The following information is transmitted to us via secure channels:

Name

Start date and end date of incapacity to work

Diagnosis/diagnoses of incapacity to work

Date of medical determination of incapacity to work

Identification as initial or follow-up certificate

Information on a possible accident (background)

Information on necessary measures

Identification as a case of sickness benefit

Name of surgery

The following data is transmitted to the place of work or the Federal Employment Agency:

Name

Start date and end date of incapacity to work

Date of medical determination of incapacity to work

Identification as initial or follow-up certificate

Information on a possible accident (background)

The following data will not be transmitted:

Doctor’s name

Diagnosis

Viewing status of the certificate of incapacity for work in the Meine SBK app

In the Meine SBK app, you can view the transmitted electronic certificates of incapacity for work in the My Processes section. The doctor’s surgeries transmit at least once a day, meaning that you can see the eAU no later than the day after issue. Find more information about the processes and status here.

View status

Even with the electronic certificate of incapacity for work, you still receive a paper printout. This is for your own records.

Good to know: You do not need to send anything to us; the data is sent directly from your doctor’s surgery.

In our Meine SBK app, you can view the transmitted electronic certificates of incapacity for work in the My Processes section. Log in directly here:

View status in Meine SBK

Good to know: The doctor’s surgeries transmit at least once a day, meaning that you can see the electronic certificate of incapacity for work no later than the day after issue.

Only the data that your doctor prints out on the printout for your records will be transmitted to the SBK.

Neither the name of your doctor nor the diagnosis will be transmitted to your place of work or the BA. In this case, the eAU only contains the following information:

Name

Start date and end date of incapacity to work

Date of medical determination of incapacity to work

Identification as initial or follow-up certificate

Information on a possible accident (background)

In this case, we report back all periods, even different ones. When reporting back to your place of work, we then provide a different start date of the incapacity to work, if applicable.

If someone has several jobs at different workplaces, each place of work is entitled to request the data regarding incapacity to work if certain conditions are met. These are:

The person is in employment for the periods requested

The place of work has been informed in advance of the incapacity to work and its expected duration

The query is made to the health insurer with which the person is insured at the time requested

No electronic certificate of incapacity to work is currently provided for privately insured employees. Employees must continue to submit the certificate of incapacity for work in paper form themselves.

Incapacity to work

Your benefits with eAU:

The eAU: how the transmission works

Viewing status of the certificate of incapacity for work in the Meine SBK app

Questions about incapacity to work

ID to request consent