Employers often pay statutory sick leave benefits before recovering the portion borne by the health insurance fund. A delayed reimbursement is a cash-flow problem with a distinct legal question about interest.
Build the principal claim first
Article 38 of Emergency Ordinance 158/2005 provides a route to recover benefits borne by the national health insurance fund. A sound claim starts with the medical certificates, payroll evidence, each reimbursement request and proof that it was submitted within the applicable period. The amount claimed must be reconciled by month with the sums actually paid to employees and those attributable to the fund.
Identify the delay precisely
Keep a separate chronology for each request: filing, any request for corrections, approval or refusal, expiry of the applicable payment period and actual payment. Where the fund acknowledges the request but does not pay, the dispute over the principal may narrow. That does not settle which rate of interest applies or from what date it runs.
Do not treat interest as automatic in one form
A claim may distinguish reimbursement, adjustment for loss of value and compensation for late payment. The legal character of the receivable and the applicable special rules matter when selecting the basis and rate of interest. In contested proceedings, plead and calculate the proposed bases separately, and avoid assuming that an analogy with tax interest will necessarily be accepted. The employer should also retain proof of legal costs; a successful principal claim does not remove the need to prove those costs.
Legal context: Emergency Ordinance 158/2005, applicable implementing rules and Civil Code art. 1535. The interest basis and amount depend on the applicable law and judicial assessment.