An employee in Germany who returns to work after a long illness does not have to start with a full day. Under the stufenweise Wiedereingliederung, the stepwise reintegration, the doctor and the employee agree on a plan. It might begin with two or three hours a day and rise in stages to full hours. It usually lasts between six weeks and six months. Throughout this time, the employee still counts as unfit for work and continues to receive sick pay from the health insurer. From six weeks of illness at the latest, the doctor must regularly assess whether such a return is possible. Germans commonly call it the Hamburger Modell, the Hamburg model. The origin of the name is uncertain.