The Social Security System (SSS) has released over P1.3 billion in sickness reimbursement benefits.
SSS said it approved a total of 186,444 sickness benefit reimbursement applications (SBRA) submitted by 22,237 employers online through My.SSS from July 2020 to April 2021.
“We are glad that more employers are now using the My.SSS accounts to submit SBRAs, giving them comfort and security to transact with SSS even beyond office hours. It is a step ahead of the previous practice when they still have to wait for a hard copy of the approved sickness notification (SN) before physically submitting the SBRA documents to SSS branches,” SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Aurora C. Ignacio said.
The mandatory online submission of SBRA was imposed on July 1, 2020 to reduce the processing time of sickness reimbursement claims and to eliminate the transmission of hard copies of claims from SSS branches to processing centers.
“Automating processes and providing online services to our members and employers are part of our ExpreSSS digitalization campaign as we work towards a simpler, faster, and more convenient transaction process,” Ignacio added.
Employers registered with the My.SSS portal, who have an approved disbursement account under the Disbursement Account Enrollment Module (DAEM) may submit the SBRA online.
“However, we would like to remind our employers that sickness benefit claims for adjustment and/or refiling must be made thru the dropbox system at SSS branches since the online facility only accepts new and initial claims with approved sickness notifications. Employers and company representatives are also advised to initially set an appointment with our SSS branches to avoid congestion in the branch offices,” Ignacio said.