In the first three months of this year, Croatian Health Insurance Institute inspectors conducted 2,321 sick leave checks in doctors' offices, examining 8,459 insured persons. They determined that 31 percent of them had no reason for sick leave, the Croatian Jutarnji List daily reported on Friday.

Almost one in three patients, or 2,589 of them, were on fake sick leave instead of at work. A total of 1,073 examinations of insured persons were conducted by special commissions which found that 376, or 35 percent, of them did not have medical reasons for sick leave. This means that a total of 2,965 workers were on sick leave without reason.

A total of 1,793 requests have been submitted by employers to control their employees. The inspectors have checked 1,403 cases and examined 1,066 patients. They found that 260 of them, or 24 percent, used sick leave without medical reasons.

When these data on sick leave checks are compared with the pre-pandemic 2019, then this year the number of sick leave checks increased by 180 percent, namely 6,129 more patients were examined, and the absence of medical reasons for missing work was determined for 1,801 insured persons more than in 2019.

According to data provided by the Health Insurance Bureau (HZZO), in the first three months of this year, based on sick leave control at the request of employers and regular and extraordinary inspections by the HZZO, 50 measures were imposed in doctor’s offices, of which 41 warnings, five warnings with a fine, three with the payment of damages and one with the collection of damages and a fine.

It is interesting that the number of employers requesting sick leave control is also increasing. In the first three months of this year, 1,793 such requests were submitted, last year 1,047, and in the pre-pandemic year (2019) there were 1,480 requests.

Annually in Croatia, €220 million are allocated from the health budget for benefits during sick leave, and employers must allocate an additional amount for the same purpose.

In total, about 18 million days are spent on sick leave, some at the expense of employers, some at the expense of the HZZO. About 55,000 workers are on sick leave every day, and more than 65,000 in pandemic years, while the average duration of sick leave is about two weeks.

Considering that controls showed that a third of sick leave is fake, this would mean that every day more than 15,000 workers are not at work without being sick.

On an annual level, the amount paid for unjustified sick leave by the HZZO alone is 70 million euros, and another 70 million by companies.