Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Getting Retirement Credit for HPSP in the Reserves
In the recently released Winter Medical Corps Newsletter, I noticed this paragraph in the “Readiness in the Reserves” article:
Shipmates,
I have just returned from PERS-9 (Reserves), reviewing important administrative processes. Here is the gouge…
HPSP Credit: Jeanitta Edwards verifies that the member was a HPSP participant and that the member is in a critical wartime skill (defined by DOD each year). Once she verifies this information, she sends it to another individual to load in the points for the year as credit towards retirement. The instruction requires a full year of service to receive credit for 1 year and caps the credit at 4 years. Unfortunately, because many medical schools start in July and graduate in May, the 4th year does not qualify. Some may have earned other points that year which can carry over for credit towards a good year. The 15 gratuity points are allocated on a pro rata basis so you will only get half those points for a half a year of participation. We will post the guiding documents to the Medical Corps Homepage. Please note that the actual HPSP policy is currently being rewritten.
A reader asked, “What are the official critical wartime specialties?”
Here is the portion of the document that lists them:
So what do those mysterious codes mean? They are defined in the Promo Prep, but since I’m such a nice guy here is the translation. The CWS include:
- General Surgery (15C)
- Neurosurgery (15D)
- Orthopedics (15H)
- Radiology (16Y)
- Anesthesia (15B)
- Internal Medicine Subspecialties (16R1)
- Emergency Medicine (16P)
- Flight Surgery (15A)
- OB/GYN (15E)
- GMO (15F)
- Family Medicine (16Q)
- General Internal Medicine (16R)
- UMO (16U)
- Psychiatry (16X)
Update just prior to publication – My wife (a Reservist) was sent this chart in the Health Professions Officer Special and Incentive Pay Plan, and the specialties under “USNR” match the list above:
If you are in one of these specialties, you can get retirement credit for your time in HPSP (or at least 3 years of the 4). In addition to the info above, here is what else I could find about this program:
Army Policy – Guidance on Reserve Service Credit for Participation in DOD HPSP and FAP
Recruiting and Retention Incentives for Reserve Component Health Professions Officers
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 
January 30, 2020 at 10:03
You probably know this, but if you are not in one of these critical war time specialties, when you retire, you can still get credit toward retirement if you can document the time spent on ACDUTRA during HPSP. They take either a fitness report or your orders. Gives you a couple of extra months for pay purposes depending on how much time you can document.
David Larson CAPT(ret) MC USN
On Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 1:01 AM Joel Schofer’s Career Planning Blog wrote:
> > > > > > * Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE posted: “In the recently released Winter > Medical Corps Newsletter, I noticed this paragraph in the “Readiness in the > Reserves” article: Shipmates, I have just returned from PERS-9 (Reserves), > reviewing important administrative processes. Here is the gouge… HPS” >
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January 30, 2020 at 11:08
To clarify, there is no credit towards reserves for HPSP non critical wartime specialties?
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January 30, 2020 at 23:35
That is my understanding.
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February 3, 2020 at 11:53
So if you are not in one of the listed specialties but do a GMO tour prior to retiring, would that make you eligible to get credit for your HPSP reserve time since GMO is one of the listed specialties?
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February 3, 2020 at 13:04
It isn’t whether you do a tour, but whether you carry the GMO subspecialty code (15F) and privileges. This is how my wife got the credit. She is a Pediatrician but carried the GMO subspecialty code and GMO privileges. Also, my Reserve Liaison Officer said that current guidance from PERS is unclear at this time, so I’m honestly not sure what the current policy is. I think it is worth trying to get the credit, though, if you qualify under the guidance in the blog post.
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October 15, 2022 at 01:19
I was granted this credit and planning to retire as a reservist last month. However, this policy has changed and the reserve retirement credit for HPSP is only being given after 20 years of creditable service is obtained. So now I owe 3 more years… exceedingly frustrated by this change of course…. and I’m pretty the the AF and Army are still giving this credit.
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October 15, 2022 at 09:17
Yes, there is a long string of comments from folks in the same situation who are filing IGs, Congressionals, etc. You can read it here – https://mccareer.org/2018/03/10/getting-retirement-credit-for-hpsp-in-the-reserves/
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