Hypothetical: Discharged with payback remaining?

[distressstudent]

I was reading around the web, and I came across a story of a guy getting kicked after completing boot because he discovered he had sclerosis. So I was wondering what would happen if you have acquire/discover a medically disqualifying condition if you are on HPSP (i.e: unfit to be deployed)?

I tried digging up old threads, but I didn't find a conclusive answer. There was one relevant thread, but the guy was fine because he got the issue fixed. Thanks.

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[Slevin]

............

 

[backrow]

If you are already in, they will likely keep you. The retention rules are significantly different than the initial acceptance rules.

 

[distressstudent]

Great. That's good to know.

 

[dpmd]

Great. That's good to know.

Important caveat is that if you knew about it but failed to report it you can get in trouble for fraud if they find out. Guessing in this kind of circumstance they are going to try to get a lot of money back from you or they could imprison you for 2 yrs.

 

[NotAnOperator]

We had an IM doc discharged for repeat DUIs at my hospital. It wasn't a dishonorable, just a general discharge. Apparently he still owed about 2 years and the military basically charged him 2 years worth of the tuition they paid for.
I never worked with the guy so this is all hearsay. But I can assure you that there's no way to beat the system. 9 time out of 10 the military will get more out of you than you give; especially when dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tuition, in a career field that is undermanned in all the branches.

 

[afteranesthesia]

Some guy at my med school during fourth year told me he was no longer hpsp as of that year bc he was medically disqualified. Wouldn't expound on why but said he didn't have to pay the military back for school. Always wondered if all that was true and never found out any of the whys. He did cot and all with me prior to school.

 

[pgg]

In general, the military will attempt to recoup every penny plus interest if you lied about a pre-existing condition when you joined, or if you didn't promptly inform them after acquiring a condition, or if you acquired that disqualifying condition due to some kind of criminal misconduct.

Some things that would disqualify a new join are waiverable for people who are already in.

If you get sick/hurt as a med student and the result is a non-waiverable condition, and you don't keep it a secret for a while to collect another semester's worth of tuition, the military will very likely just cut you loose and not go looking for a refund.

 

[Perrotfish]

I was reading around the web, and I came across a story of a guy getting kicked after completing boot because he discovered he had sclerosis. So I was wondering what would happen if you have acquire/discover a medically disqualifying condition if you are on HPSP (i.e: unfit to be deployed)?

I tried digging up old threads, but I didn't find a conclusive answer. There was one relevant thread, but the guy was fine because he got the issue fixed. Thanks.

If you are honorably discharged once you are active duty, due to a new onset medical condition, to the best of my knowledge your scholarship is forgiven.

if you are discharged once you are active duty, due to a medical condition that you knew about when you signed the contract and lied about, you can be charged with fraudulent enlistment. Best case you pay the money back, worst case you spend time in jail.

If you are discharged from Active duty with something other than an honorable discharge, through some fault of your own, I don't know what the rule is. The internet story of the DUI above is the closet thing to facts that I have

If you are discharged while in medical school, because you failed to meet some requirement of the scholarship that was not medical (for example you failed out of OCS for disciplinary reasons), you will have to pay back every dime that they paid to you, plus interest.

If you are discharged while in medical school, because of a new medical condition, the military seems to throw darts to determine their response. I know a student who was discharged in her fourth year due to a medical condition that did not exclude her from practicing as a civilian physician, who was forgiven her debt. We once had a student post on here who was discharged due to cancer which prevented her from practicing medicine, she was asked to pay back the scholarship.