The Healthcare Informatization Center of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan has developed "Electronic Sick Leave" information system. Implemented jointly with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, the project aims at bringing the information on temporary disability certificates together in a unified electronic register, thus avoiding the unnecessary storage and processing of printed documents and reducing both the insurers' costs and the burden on the state budget.

According to this initiative, an electronic sick leave note issued by a medical facility and verified by an enhanced electronic signature of the relevant medical officer will serve the basis for estimation and payment of temporary disability benefits. For employers and healthcare professionals, the e-sick leave will be available in the information system of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population and in the "e-Health" portal/mobile application, respectively.

The medical certificate will be drawn up as an electronic document by using an automated system of information exchange between involved medical facilities, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, and employers. There rules of mutual information exchange will be the same for all the stakeholders and they will be endorsed as a legal document in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Transition to "Electronic Sick Leave" system will bring down the cases of insurance fraud, increase the reliability of analytical reports and medical data, improve the quality of forecasts related to the government payments of these types of benefits, as well as make the sick leave certificate status available online for citizens and employers.

The e-sick leave terms and conditions have been developed by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which is in charge of developing and implementing the state policy and legal regulation in the field of healthcare, and were approved by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population.