special pays
Summary of Specialty Leader Business Meeting
Here is a brief summary of last week’s Specialty Leader Business Meeting that is always held in conjunction with the Graduate Medical Education Selection Board:
- Current interim Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) need to formally apply to the next screening board in summer 2017. I would STRONGLY encourage other people to apply as well because it is a screened/appointed leadership position that allows you to remain clinically active and that I also think will lead to promotion to O6 if done successfully.
- Announcements for nominative positions often come out with very little time until the nominations are due. They all require your CV, BIO, Letter of Intent (LOI), Officer Summary Record (OSR), and Performance Summary Record (PSR). It is best if you have these ready to go due to the often short timeline. I will tell you that I update my CV and military biography monthly and have multiple LOI templates at the ready at all times, so I practice what I preach. Your OSR/PSR can downloaded from BUPERS On-Line anytime, so that requires no prep (assuming BOL is working).
- Current overall Medical Corps manning is 103.4%. This is of no real use to you but is simply an interesting fact/statistic. It does, perhaps, limit our promotion opportunity a lit bit, but…
- The Medical Corps promotion opportunities for FY18 are expected to be higher than they have been in recent years. You never know the actual percentage until the board has concluded, but this is certainly good news.
- As of now, there is no change in the conference approval process. Sorry.
- The Career Intermission Program (CIP) has been extended until 2019. This program allows you to take up to 3 years off from the Navy to do something else, hit the pause button on progression toward promotion, and then return afterward. You have a 2:1 additional commitment for any time off. In other words, if you take 2 years off you’ll owe 4 years when you return. Some people have tried to use the CIP to do fellowships on their own, but that is not the intent of the program and requests for CIP to do a fellowship will be closely scrutinized by BUMED before approval. Info on the program can be found here or you can contact your Detailer.
- There is no special pays update. They are still awaiting the NAVADMIN. The latest can always be found here:
http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/Special_Pay/Pages/default.aspx
Special Pays NAVADMIN Update
There are many officers eagerly awaiting the FY17 special pays NAVADMIN. The latest word is the following:
- BUMED is still awaiting the NAVADMIN.
- The earliest we can expect it is the week of Thanksgiving.
I’ll provide more information as it becomes available, but updates are usually posted at the top of the BUMED Special Pays Website.
Hardship Duty Pay-Tempo Reauthorized for Sailors
WASHINGTON (NNS) — Today, the Navy announced a reauthorization of Hardship Duty Pay – Tempo (HDP-T) to help compensate Sailors for extended deployments and longer periods away from their homeport of more than 220 consecutive days.
The Department of the Navy’s HDP-T reauthorization proposal was approved by the Department of Defense for one year through Sept. 30, 2017. The pay was first authorized in Sept. 2014, for a two year period.
“The Navy is in high demand and is present where and when it matters,” said Vice Adm. Robert Burke, Chief of Naval Personnel. “Hardship Duty Pay – Tempo is designed to compensate Sailors for the important roles they continue to play in keeping our nation safe during extended deployments around the globe.”
Sailors will receive HDP-T on a prorated basis of $16.50 per day, not to exceed a monthly rate of $495, when they are operationally deployed beyond 220 consecutive days. There will be no differentiation in rates of HDP-T by paygrade or Active/Reserve Component status.
Consolidated Special Pays Presentation on MilSuite
BUMED has posted a video of Mr. William Marin from BUMED Special Pays discussing the new consolidated special pays. The slide deck is here:
Conversion to Consolidated Special Pays Brief – AUG 2016
The link to the video on MilSuite is here:
https://www.milsuite.mil/video/watch/newvideo/13448
You have to be registered on MilSuite to view it.
Consolidated Special Pays
I recently attended a brief where we were given an update on the upcoming change in how we receive our special pays. This new plan is called “Consolidated Special Pays” or “CSP”. Many of the details of the new plan are not finalized or available yet, but here are the highlights:
- All of the different special pays we received will be consolidated into three pays:
- Incentive Pay (IP) – This will replace Variable Special Pay (VSP), Additional Special Pay (ASP), and Incentive Special Pay (ISP). Currently ASP and ISP are paid in lump sums, but the IP will be paid monthly.
- Retention Bonus (RB) – This will replace Multiyear Special Pay (MSP) but will continue to be paid as a lump sum.
- Board Certification Pay (BCP) – This will change to a flat annual total of $6K instead of varying based on how long you’ve been in the Navy. It will be paid monthly.
- The current plan, always subject to change, is for everyone to convert to the CSP in FY17. Officers under an existing agreement (such as a MSP contract) will be allowed to remain under that agreement for the duration of agreement.
- The Navy is still working out the details and the answers to detailed questions may not be available. Because of this you won’t find any details yet on the BUMED Special Pays page. Despite this, they have been briefing these changes for a while at AMDOC and in other settings, so I think it is important to get the word out even if all the details have not been worked out.
FY16 Medical Corps Special Pay Guidance Released
Here is the FY16 Medical Corps Special Pay Guidance:
FY16 MC-DC Special Pay Implementation Guidance
Here is the website where you can get further information:
http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/Special_Pay/Pages/default.aspx
And here is my video podcast explaining all the various special pays:
FY16 Special Pays NAVADMIN Released
Per the BUMED Special Pays website (http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/Special_Pay/Pages/default.aspx):
8 Sep 2015: The FY16 Medical Special Pays NAVADMIN 212/15 has been released. FY16 Special Pay requests can now be submitted in accordance with OPNAVINST 7220.16. Submit requests no earlier than 60 days prior to, and no later than 30 days after the effective date. Send ALL requests and questions to the email address listed below.
Templates for submission can be found here, although your Special Pays person in PSD usually can do this for you:
http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/Special_Pay/Pages/SpecialPaysTemplatesforSubmission.aspx
Here is the NAVADMIN. If I’m interpreting it correctly, all amounts remain the same from FY15 and can be found here, FY15 MC-DC Special Pay Implementation Guidance.
Introduction to Medical Corps Special Pays
This is my first videocast of a lecture I gave to the Emergency Medicine residents at NMC Portsmouth a few weeks ago. I was surprised by how many questions there were about special pays. I think it is a topic that is mundane to those of us that have been in the Navy for a while, but can be quite a mystery to new Medical Corps officers. As I learn how to videocast I’m sure the content will improve, but aside from one place where I said “January” instead of “July” I think it turned out well. I hope junior physicians enjoy this introduction to the world of Medical Corps special pays.
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