USU Outreach in Tropical Medicine
The Uniformed Services University (USU) Outreach in Tropical Medicine is CME approved and exploits the large amount of clinical care and public health practice relevant content of our graduate certificate in tropical medicine. It will be available this spring with remote access via Adobe Connect.
For those with interest, here is the CME activity brochure and learning objectives to help further describe the activity’s approach. Applicants who do not have .mil e-access must contact Dr. Brett-Major directly to become registered. His contact info is in the activity brochure.
Guest Post: The Fellowship-Retention Bonus “Loophole” Still Exists; Are You Eligible?
By Dustin Schuett, DO
Note: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense or the United States Government.
The 2018 Navy Graduate Medical Education Selection Board results were released 12 DEC 2018. For a select few Navy physicians pursuing fellowship, the opportunity exists to take a Retention Bonus (RB, formerly Multi-year Specialty Pay) and pay back their fellowship obligation and the RB obligation concurrently without extending their Navy commitment.
To be eligible, the physician must meet all of the following requirements:
- Be at 8 years or more of active duty time in the Medical Corps.
- Have completed all pre-commissioning obligation time:
- All initially obligated HPSP/USUHS/HSCP time AND any ROTC or USNA obligated time
- This does not include residency obligation time
Essentially, if you went to medical school on a 4 year HPSP scholarship, have completed or will have completed 4 or more years of combined GMO and post-residency payback time BEFORE starting fellowship and have 8 total years active duty Medical Corps time, you’re likely eligible.
Here is my personal example:
4 year HPSP > 1 year internship > 2 years as a GMO > 5 years of residency > 2 years post-residency staff time (4 total including GMO time) = 4 years of total payback completing HPSP obligation, 10 years in Medical Corps
As an orthopaedic surgeon, our annual Incentive Pay (IP) is $59,000. I was able to take a 3 year RB which increases my IP to $73,000 annually plus an additional $33,000 lump sum paid annually for a total of $106,000/year, a $47,000 increase per year without increasing my obligation time.
If you have questions about special pay, please follow the current BUMED guidance:
If there are any questions please direct them to your HRD/Admin/Special Pays Coordinator, or Specialty Leader, who will forward to BUMED inquiries they are unable answer at the command level, but no individuals should be bypassing their local command admin support, since they need to be able to understand the issues, and responses, to be able to better support the command.
For more information, see the Medical Corps Special Pay Guidance that can be found on the BUMED Special Pays website.
Good Luck!
The Word File of My Promo Board Letter and Other Templates
Lots of people are asking me for templates for letters to promotion boards. Here is the exact letter in Word format that I sent to last year’s O6 board (minus my Xed out SS#):
You can also use these:
2019 Military Pay Tables and the Finance Friday Articles
You can see the 2019 military pay tables here:
2019 Military Active & Reserve Component Pay Tables
Here are this week’s articles:
5 Thoughts on the Market Downturn
5 Things To Know About Volatile Markets
Do I need a Financial Advisor? Four Reasons to Use a Financial Advisor
First Principles Thinking: Should You Invest in a 401(k)?
From 28 Funds to 3: Simplifying to a Three Fund Portfolio
How to Retire Early as a Doctor
Mil Money: Here are 10 money moves for the new year
Struggling to put a financial plan together?
The Frugal Physician: 5 Steps to Becoming Debt Free
The Wall Street Physician Blog in 2018, And An Announcement
2019 Annual Blog Update
At the beginning of every year I give a general update on how the blog is doing. Enjoy!
Profit
As during previous years, profit was negative $99. I make no money on this, and it costs me $99/year.
Blog Traffic
Here’s a graph of blog traffic since the blog was started in mid-2015:
The light blue is page views and the dark blue is visitors:
- 2015 – 3,705 visitors viewed 10,870 pages with 66 posts published
- 2016 – 18,373 visitors viewed 43,673 pages with 133 posts published
- 2017 – 32,569 visitors viewed 88,263 pages with 194 posts published
- 2018 – 56,674 visitors viewed 151,044 pages with 212 posts published
10 Most Popular Blog Posts and Pages in 2018
Here are the 10 most popular pages and posts in 2018, excluding promotion board results (which always get high traffic):
- POM20 Navy Medicine Billet Reduction – 4,609 views
- Joel Schofer’s Promo Prep – 4,453 views
- Useful Documents – 2,600 views
- LCDR Fitreps – Language for Writing Your Block 41 – 2,425 views of this post from 2016
- Joel Schofer’s Fitrep Prep – 2,413 views
- CV, Military Bio, and Letter of Intent Templates – 2,158 views of this post from 2017
- Useful Links – 1,917 views
- What are AQDs and How Do You Get Them? – 1,555 views of this post from 2016
- Getting Retirement Credit for HPSP in the Reserves – 1,501 views
- Potential Problems if You’re Licensed to Practice Medicine in Nebraska – 1,408 views
5 Most Popular Videos of 2018
- Basic Anatomy of a Fitrep – 647 views
- FY20 Promotion Boards – What are They Looking At and How Can You Get Ready – 533 views
- Fitreps in 18 Minutes – 448 views
- How to Read Your Performance Summary Report (PSR) – 434 views
- The Quick and Dirty on Updating Your Record – 180 views
Thanks for all of your support. Everywhere I go people thank me for the blog, so I know a lot of you are benefiting from it. Because of that, I’ll keep doing it for as long as I can.
Finance Friday Articles
Here are this week’s finance Friday articles:
5 Reasons To Invest In Choppy Markets
7 Ways the IRS Supports Your Charitable Desires
Avoiding the Hedonic Treadmill
Buying When Stocks Are Down Big
Here’s how much money to save if you want to retire ‘rich,’ according to wealth manager David Bach
Introduction to Commercial Real Estate Investing
Paper Tigers (a discussion about how futile it is to make market predictions)
Real Estate Investing Without the Hassle
Seven Ideas (to manage your own money)
Tax Loss Harvesting with Fidelity: A Step by Step Guide
Three Questions (to ask when the markets are down)
Using Side Income to Fund Multiple Tax Advantaged Retirement Accounts
What is the Best Month to Buy a House?
All the Posts About Letters to the Board in One Place
The question most people ask me is answered in these posts:
Should You Send a Letter to the Promotion Board?
Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?
The bottom line is:
Pretend that you did not send a letter to the board, the board is over, and you were not selected for promotion. Are you going to be kicking yourself for not sending the letter? If the answer is yes or maybe, then send the letter. As long as you keep it short and sweet, there is no real downside.
Frankly, I think that when officers send letters to promotion boards they are often just making themselves feel better, and there is nothing wrong with that. You want to make sure that when the promotion board results come out, no matter what happened, you feel like you did everything you could to get promoted.
Letters to promotion boards have a new due date. You can’t send them the day before the board anymore:
Letters to Promotion Boards Now Due 10 Calendar Days Before the Board
If you know you are getting out of the Navy and really don’t care about getting promoted, you should read this post:
What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
Have you been on active duty for less than 1 year? Read this:
How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
You now need to use your DoD ID number and not your Social Security number on letters to the board. Read this:
Use DoD ID Number and Not Your SSN on Letters to the Board
Happy holidays!
Finance Friday Articles
Here are this week’s personal finance articles:
2019 Tax Brackets, Standard Deduction, and Other Changes
FEDVIP gift: Military retirees, others get extra three months to enroll in dental, vision insurance
How To Invest In International Stocks in 2019
Index Investing And Rock-Paper-Scissors
Navy Medicine West Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) – O4-O6
BUMED is looking to fill the Navy Medicine West CMIO position in the summer of 2019. The position description (PD) is available here.
Interested candidates should be in their PCS window and can submit their CV, Bio, and Letter of Intent to the incumbent (CDR David Paz – address in the global and in the PD) no later than 11 JAN 2019.
How to Get the FY20 Medical Corps Promotion Lineal List
The spreadsheet with the FY20 promotion board zones has too much PII to post publicly, but you can find it here (make sure you pick your e-mail certificate):
https://es.med.navy.mil/bumed/m00/m00c/M00C1/SitePages/Home.aspx
It is halfway down on the right side under “Career Management.”
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 