A heart attack imposes certain lifestyle restrictions on the person who has suffered the attack. After treatment, the patient cannot perform physical activity and needs a calm environment and a positive emotional background. In many cases, a special rehabilitation regime and release from work are required. For such situations, it is possible to create a disability group after a heart attack and stenting.
In addition to official exemption from work, special status gives the right to financial support from the state. The pension amount is assigned depending on the severity of the condition. We'll look at this in more detail later.
Do they give special status after a heart attack?
You can get disability after myocardial infarction and stenting if there are complications of the disease. To confirm them, you need to undergo an examination and submit an application to an expert commission, which makes the appropriate decision.
In theory, obtaining status is not difficult, but you need to be prepared to visit doctors and get tested. It can be difficult to do this on your own due to a heart attack. It’s good if there is a friend or relative nearby who is ready to help. It is better to make an appointment in advance to avoid tiring waiting in lines.
To avoid wasting time on paperwork, first consult with your doctor. Let a specialist assess your current condition and prospects for rehabilitation. Be also prepared for the fact that members of the expert commission may require additional examination and include narrow specialists in the list.
Preparing for stenting
After reviewing your medical history and performing a physical examination, the surgeon performs a coronary angiogram to determine whether atherosclerosis can be treated with stenting. A coronary angiogram makes it clear whether the arteries are narrowed or occluded (completely blocked). A contrast agent is injected through a catheter (a thin long tube passed to the coronary vessels through the artery of the leg or arm. When the substance fills the lumens of the arteries, X-rays are turned on. The image is displayed on the monitor, and the doctor determines exactly where the coronary arteries are affected. Having scheduled heart surgery, The doctor will give recommendations regarding nutrition. It is usually recommended to avoid drinking water and food after dinner the night before stenting. If you are undergoing preparation in the hospital, the instructions may be different.
The evening before surgery you should:
- Take medications prescribed by your doctor. If you are taking diabetic or blood thinning medications, your surgeon may ask you to stop taking them that evening.
- Prepare the necessary medications that you will take with you to the hospital.
- You will stay in the hospital until the next morning. Driving is contraindicated, so you should arrange your delivery home in advance.
What group can you get?
The commission makes a decision on whether disability is due after a heart attack and stenting based on a comprehensive examination of the patient. Depending on the degree of heart damage and consequences, the first, second or third group can be assigned. Each provides its own privileges in terms of work and preferential financing.
First disability group
The ability to independently serve one’s needs has been lost by 80-95%. People with such a percentage of heart attack lesions are considered disabled.
For this form of the disease, the following benefits are prescribed:
- social pension;
- free travel on buses, trams and trains;
- free medicines;
- spa treatment once a year;
- working week no more than 35 hours;
- exemption from payment of transport tax and real estate tax;
- 50% discount when paying for housing and communal services (if there is more than one apartment, then to choose from).
Second disability group
The second degree is assigned to moderate heart attacks. Such people can perform their labor function only if favorable conditions are created, both physical and psycho-emotional.
Almost all the same preferences apply here as for people with group I. The only exception is in terms of providing medications: for some medications you will have to pay 50% of the cost.
Third disability group
Group III disabled people are entitled to:
- 50% discount on the purchase of medicines;
- 50% discount on utility bills;
- social pension;
- free travel on public transport;
- up to 60 days of vacation at your own expense.
Depending on the degree of complications, you can count on a free nurse. But if relatives live in the house with the patient, they will first have to prove that they themselves cannot perform the functions of care. To do this, the social security authority will need to provide proof of employment confirming full-time employment.
How many days does sick leave last for coronavirus?
Sick leave for coronavirus lasts as long as necessary for the patient’s body to completely defeat the virus and restore it.
For a patient with coronavirus confirmed by laboratory diagnostics, but without pneumonia, the first sick leave is issued, as a rule, for 14 days. All this time, the patient is treated according to the doctor’s recommendations and monitors the dynamics of therapy. After two weeks, the patient does a PCR test, and the doctor decides on the length of the sick leave.
It is important that the virus does not provoke the development of complications - pneumonia, vascular thrombosis, kidney failure. If there are severe signs of a respiratory disease: cough, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, lack of air, a CT scan of the lungs should be done.
The patient should remain on sick leave until a negative test result - PCR or immunoglobulin - comes back. However, it is important to understand that antibodies (responses to the virus) can remain in the blood for another 2-3 months, even when the patient is already healthy. Taking into account the rather high percentage of error, sometimes it is preferable to do not one, but two tests. After the first negative result, the attending physician can discharge the recovered patient or extend the sick leave, but under quarantine.
If coronavirus provokes pneumonia, then the disease is more severe and the sick leave will last longer. Before discharging the patient, the doctor must make sure not only that there is no viral or viral-bacterial infection, but also that there are no unresolved inflammatory foci in the lungs (infiltrates, “ground glass”, “cobblestone” symptoms).
It can take a month or more to treat viral pneumonia. At the same time, residual effects of coronavirus, such as cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing, may persist for another 1-2 months after pneumonia has already been defeated.
Elderly people over 65 years of age and patients at risk with chronic diseases or “in conditions requiring self-isolation” work remotely or are on sick leave until special orders from the government and the Chief Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation, that is, as long as there is a threat for their life and health.
Receipt procedure
The maximum period of sick leave for a heart attack is 4 months. If after this period the patient has not improved, he or his relatives can apply for an ITU.
The basis for examination, regardless of the patient’s condition, is also the performance of work in positions that are contraindicated in case of a heart attack. These include work in construction, aviation, security, courier service, etc. A detailed list can be found in the regional social security office.
To obtain disability after a heart attack and stenting, you need to submit a corresponding application to the expert commission. The following documents are attached along with the application:
- passport;
- a referral to ITU from the applicant (you can fill it out yourself or ask one of your relatives);
- referral from the attending physician;
- SNILS;
- medical history or medical record, which reflects the patient’s condition;
- open sick leave (if available);
- a copy of the work book;
- conclusion from the place of work on the nature of the activity performed.
You can submit documents in person or by mail. The commission reviews the package within 30 days, after which it sends an invitation for inspection. The examination takes place at the patient’s place of residence. If the applicant cannot appear for the commission on his own, then she comes to his home.
The assignment of special status takes place according to the principle of voting. The results of the discussion are recorded in the minutes, on the basis of which a decision is made. The corresponding regime is assigned by the act.
Who and when can take sick leave during coronavirus?
Only officially employed citizens can apply for payments for temporary disability from the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, from whose wages tax was withheld on a monthly basis.
Individual entrepreneurs (IP) and the self-employed, as well as people working without official employment, are not entitled to payments.
- A patient with confirmed coronavirus or viral pneumonia caused by CODID-19 may qualify for paid sick leave.
- Sick leave can be taken by contact persons, relatives, people who care for the patient and have systematic contact with him.
- In particular, a parent whose child is sick can take sick leave.
- Patients with chronic diseases who are at risk for developing complications
can take sick leave for the duration of the pandemic The list of such diseases has been approved by the Health Committee of the Russian Federation and allows an employee to take sick leave ( important! but only for the entire quarantine period - the period established by the region), having first registered with the clinic at the place of residence. - Citizens of the Russian Federation who have returned from epidemiologically disadvantaged countries and are forced to spend two weeks in self-isolation due to quarantine can take sick leave at work.
- citizens over 65 years of age are taking sick leave due to a special order from local authorities and the Chief Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation, since older people are at highest risk from coronavirus.
It is important to understand that monetary compensation for illness or in case of contact with a sick person will be less than wages. Therefore, if the coronavirus is mild, the employee can agree with the employer on remote employment.
Only the attending physician - a public or private clinic (if he has the appropriate license and the ability to conduct a medical examination) can send a patient on sick leave. The doctor will clarify the complaints and assess the patient’s health condition. Emergency doctors are not authorized to issue sick leave.
With coronavirus, symptoms such as elevated body temperature, general weakness and fatigue, loss of smell and other disturbances in the functioning of internal organs are observed.
If coronavirus provokes pneumonia, the patient, as a rule, begins to be bothered by symptoms of a respiratory disease: shortness of breath, cough, chest discomfort.
But visual examination, auscultation and pulse oximetry are not enough to make a diagnosis and issue a sick leave certificate. Coronavirus is considered confirmed based on the results of a laboratory PCR test. If the doctor suspects that the patient may have pneumonia caused by COVID-19, the patient is recommended to have a CT scan of the lungs. Pneumonia is a common complication of the new coronavirus infection. The patient will need more time to recover, and more intensive therapy will be prescribed.
To receive sick leave, patients with chronic diseases must register with the clinic. Elderly people over 65 years of age and people returning from abroad are forced to comply with the self-isolation regime, so they can apply for sick leave remotely through the State Services portal. This procedure was established by a special order of the Government of the Russian Federation, but it is not final and can be changed.
If you have been in contact with an infected person, you can take sick leave for quarantine or check with the head of the company about the possibility of working remotely for two weeks.
A sick leave certificate can be issued electronically or in writing. This data is entered into the Social Insurance Fund database, which is available to the employer after authorization in his personal account.
Each temporary disability certificate contains a code for payment of benefits, which will be different for patients with confirmed coronavirus (code 01) and a contact person forced to go into quarantine without obvious signs of illness (code 03).
For how long is disability granted?
A heart attack is recognized as a disease in which recovery is possible. Depending on the severity of the disease, status may be issued for one or two years. In severe cases, the status is assigned for 2 years, but in the second and third cases you will have to undergo a new examination a year after the first commission. Exceptions are possible, but they are rare.
If doctors consider that over the past period the patient feels noticeably better and can perform work functions (fully or in a limited mode), then the list of work restrictions, and with them the benefits, may be changed or canceled altogether. This decision is made based on the results of the re-examination.
They can also be allowed to work if the work does not involve serious emotional or physical stress. If the commission considers the likelihood of recovery low, then such patients may be assigned status indefinitely.
What benefits can you expect in case of refusal?
If the commission considers that the patient has fully recovered, does not require outside assistance in performing daily functions and can carry out work activities, then the status will be denied. They may not give a group even if the commission considers the current working conditions favorable. If necessary, sick leave can be extended for up to 120 days. Sometimes it is only possible to shorten the working week or indicate a change in workplace.
Without recognition of disability, the patient cannot enjoy full financial benefits. But since 2021, all people who have had a heart attack have the right to free medicines. They are issued immediately after discharge from the hospital and are subsequently provided for a year after myocardial infarction. This measure is intended to support all patients who find themselves in difficult situations and reduce the financial burden on their families. Detailed information can be found in Order of the Ministry of Health No. 1n dated January 9, 2021.
There should be no problems with the necessary medications; the authorities allowed us to receive medications six months in advance. In total, the list of free medicines contains 23 names of drugs of domestic and foreign production. They promise to expand this list until 2023.
A document to receive medications can be obtained from your attending physician. To do this, you need to bring your compulsory medical insurance policy, SNILS, passport and extract from the hospital to your appointment. With the finished prescription, you can go to the pharmacy.
Registration procedure
Since a heart attack is a critical condition, a person is usually admitted immediately to a hospital hospital, taken there by an ambulance. Therefore, in the vast majority of cases, a certificate of incapacity for work is opened in the hospital .
When filling out sick leave, a code is entered in the appropriate cell indicating the general reason for absence from work. In the case of a heart attack, this code will be “01” - a disease that can be changed to “08” if the patient continues treatment in a sanatorium.
The rules for paying benefits are regulated by Federal Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2006 and are similar to the procedure for payment for other diseases: the first three days of incapacity for work are paid from the employer’s budget, the remaining days from the funds of the Social Insurance Fund . In the case of follow-up treatment in sanatorium-resort conditions in Russia, immediately after discharge from the hospital, being on sick leave from the 1st day is paid for at the expense of the Social Insurance Fund.
Note! The amount of payments depends on the total insurance period. For example, the lowest payment will be received by an employee with a total length of service of less than 1 year (30% of the average salary). If you have 8 years of experience or more, you are entitled to payments in the amount of 100% of average earnings.
Re-examination procedure
Re-examination for a disability group is a voluntary exercise and can be prescribed by mutual decision of the patient and the attending physician. The referral reflects the treatment procedures prescribed during the rehabilitation period and makes a conclusion about their effectiveness (they helped, helped slightly or did not help).
The rest of the list of documents is the same as for the initial application. It should also be accompanied by a certificate of the current disability group and an individual rehabilitation program developed by the previous commission. The rehabilitation card must indicate that you have completed all stages of treatment, otherwise you will definitely not be given a new group.
If the rehabilitation program specifies requirements for the work regime, you will need to contact the employer for a mark of completion and a signature on compliance with the prescribed conditions.
Assignment of disability after stenting
The procedure of stenting, or revascularization, is designed to improve the patient’s condition and facilitate recovery after an attack. Based on the results of the procedure, the doctor evaluates its effectiveness and records the result in writing. The subsequent decision of the commission depends on how useful stenting turned out to be:
- Great effect. Good tolerance to physical activity, no or only slight angina.
- Good effect. Angina pectoris is moderate and practically does not bother me. Light physical activity is possible.
- Satisfactorily. Angina pectoris only appears after intense exercise.
- Unsatisfactory. This assessment indicates that the patient's condition has not changed.
When stenting, the principle of submitting documents and undergoing examination is the same. You can find out whether patients are given disability after stenting of cardiac vessels from their attending physician. Typically, a group is assigned if the results of the procedure are insufficient to continue a full life, but for this you will have to undergo a new examination.
Still have questions about disability after a heart attack?
Free consultation with AngioClinic specialists
Author
Salmina Daria Vladimirovna
Geneticist. Graduated from the Chelyabinsk State Medical Academy. She completed an internship at the Northwestern State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov.
