Incapacity calls the health insurance company

Incapacity for work: calls from the health insurance fund prohibited

07/07/2014

Not only that you are in pain, feeling dull and exhausted; no, then come even annoying calls. Employees will not have to put up with receiving calls from their health insurance company to put them under pressure and control them if they are unable to work.

Workers should not be unsettled
Ill-posted workers should not feel insecure if they feel they are being pushed by their health insurance company over the phone for a quick return to work. You should probably refuse such calls. According to a dpa report advises Andrea Fabris of the Advice Center Potsdam Independent Patient Services Germany (UPD): „If I feel pressured, I should tell the caller, „No, I do not want to comment on that now, please do not call me again.“

Complain to the clerk or the board
However, if the insured continues to receive calls, he should complain to his clerk or the cashier board. This should be in writing, including a note of when which employee called, Fabris recommends. In the end, that would mean keeping a call log. The youngest „Monitor patient consultation“ According to reports, insured persons, who feel pressured by telephone calls or very intimate questions from the health insurances, find themselves obliged to return to work as soon as possible, to the UPD counseling centers. For example, it happens that a health insurance fund stops paying sickness benefits at short notice because, according to a report from their medical service, it considers an insured to be able to work, even though the doctors of the affected person see things differently.

You do not have to sit at home for 24 hours if you are unable to work
Fabirs also recommends that insured persons should not be alarmed by the assumption that they were not available when making a previous call. They would not have to justify themselves or explain their absence. „A work incapacity does not mean that you have to sit at home 24 hours a day, but you can go out, you can go for a walk, as long as the health allows.“ It is enough to reply: „Yes, I was not there.“

Many patients do not know their rights
The current „Monitor patient consultation 2014“ had been presented to the public a week ago. The UPD had anonymously evaluated 80,000 counseling sessions for an overview of abnormalities, important topics and frequent problems in patient counseling. Already the year before, the experts came to similar conclusions. According to the UPD, between April 2012 and March 2013, almost 4,800 complaints were reported „sick pay“ received. The managing director of UPD, dr. Sebastian Schmidt-Kaehler had talked about that in the consultation is seen that „Many patients do not know their rights, let alone demand them“ would. (Ad)