Any one making Navy Reserves work with busy private practice?

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Chetamine

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I currently have 10yrs active duty, with 4yr HPSP for med school, looking to get out at the end of this tour (11.5yrs AD total). I will have to do about six months of reserve time after AD for GI Bill obligation. I am hoping to discuss what it's like being a reservist with anyone here, especially someone in a busy private practice group. I'd hate to throw away those years of AD, if staying in the reserves is manageable. I briefly talked with the Anesthesiology Reserve specialty leaders, and they said the Navy is currently willing to match four good reserve years, with good credit for each HPSP year, giving you 8 total, with a yearly bonus. I have also heard that they 'promise' they won't deploy you for at least the first two years as a reservist. Now, I have been in for 14 years and know what a promise from the Navy is good for, but at least they try to make it sound good. My specific concern about this is trying to make partner and then being deployed before, or soon after partnership. Also, Is it possible to consolidate your reserve time into larger blocks of time, instead of a weekend a month which would be scheduling hassle? Something along the lines of one week per quarter? Or, two weeks every six months? Thanks.
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What about checking out the VA? Buy all that time, put in 20 years, that's a good chunk of retirement change. You'd be very stable at that point.
 
I have considered that and talked with a former AD anesthesiologist that is happy with his situation, 16yrs AD, bought into VA, and still a Reservist. But, I'd like to return home and there is an VA nearby but, I haven't seen any jobs available for a while. Just considering all options.
 
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On my last deployment, I met several reservists who seemed to be making it work. One was a orthopedic trauma surgeon based in the midwest. However, he was at an academic center and his employer seemed pretty accommodating. Another was a CRNA but he was in the VA. I think it is doable if you are in an academic center or hospital based employee with a fairly large group. However it will be very difficult in private practice. No one will be looking out for you or understanding. They'll actually look at this negatively especially when you have to deploy. That means more call or covering your patients. In private practice most care about the bottom line, especially partners. I think that would be a detriment to you making partner in all honesty. My wife left private practice (Pain-Anesthesiology) to go to academic because of the lack of accommodation once she was pregnant and eventually went on maternity leave (unpaid and they kept pestering her when she was coming back). She wasn't partner yet and saw the writing on the wall in the event we wanted more kids. She never went back from maternity leave.

If you are really interested in reserve then strongly consider hospital based or VA. I don't think private practice will work out.
 
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When you buy your military time into the federal civilian pension scheme (such as the VAs), you are no longer eligible to use that time for a military pension/retirement. You can't use the same time for two federal pensions (such as VA/State Dept/CIA and the Army/Navy/AF).
 
notdeadyet said:
When you buy your military time into the federal civilian pension scheme (such as the VAs), you are no longer eligible to use that time for a military pension/retirement. You can't use the same time for two federal pensions (such as VA/State Dept/CIA and the Army/Navy/AF).
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Reserves is an exception
 
Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re being selfish.

If you really want to go into private practice, you need to cut ties completely with the military.

Is it really fair that you collect a monthly check with the reserves and are eligible for reserve retirement/health care benefits while your partners stand by covering your call and overhead while you are deployed?

If you want to go reserves, join the VA or become an employed physician. I am a partner in a 35+ multi-specialty surgical group. Almost half the guys are former military. Nobody is active reserves. That should tell you something.
 
I appreciate all the replies. I'm not sure what the reserves pays on a monthly basis, but I don't even consider it part of my equation because I assume it's very little. One could argue that getting out of the military to make 2-4x the salary, knowing that you are going home every night to your family when not on call, choosing where you live and what kind of work you do, not having to worry about going out to do field exercises, spend time on a ship or sleep in a tent in the middle of a desert halfway around the world surrounded by people that don't like you very much, or having the decisions of our esteemed politicans in DC effect what you do on a daily basis, is the selfish thing to do. I hear what you are saying, just looking for opinions.
 
Gastrapathy said:
Reserves is an exception
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The poster was talking about "buying in" his military time to a VA pension. That is the active duty time, yes? You then can't use those points for your military pension if you've bought them in to a VA pension.

You can still draw a military retirement with a VA retirement, but not use the active duty points in your military retirement if you've converted them to civilian retirement.
 
Chetamine said:
I appreciate all the replies. I'm not sure what the reserves pays on a monthly basis, but I don't even consider it part of my equation because I assume it's very little. One could argue that getting out of the military to make 2-4x the salary, knowing that you are going home every night to your family when not on call, choosing where you live and what kind of work you do, not having to worry about going out to do field exercises, spend time on a ship or sleep in a tent in the middle of a desert halfway around the world surrounded by people that don't like you very much, or having the decisions of our esteemed politicans in DC effect what you do on a daily basis, is the selfish thing to do. I hear what you are saying, just looking for opinions.
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I don’t disagree with anything you said. Those are all good points; however, private practice is a BUSINESS above all else. You have employees that count on you to pay their bills and overhead that needs to covered regardless if you personally are generating revenue.
 
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Does anyone know what the health standards are for joining the after leaving active duty, vs transitioning directly to the reserves from active duty? I really don't want to commit to the reserves right after separating, but I have a few minor medical conditions that would be a problem if I was held the same standards as a new recruit.
 
Chetamine said:
I appreciate all the replies. I'm not sure what the reserves pays on a monthly basis, but I don't even consider it part of my equation because I assume it's very little.
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For most people the big payouts of the reserves are

1) The ability to transfer the GI bill to a dependent. If you join for 4 years after your initial obligation you can put in the transfer, worth hundreds of thousands

2) The retirement: The reserve retirement at 20 is almost exactly 1/2 the value of the AD retirement at 20 for most physicians who served a 7 year obligation, transferred to the reserves, and never deployed again. Worth a little over a million (pretax)

You're right that the actual pay probably won't change your lifestyle, though.
 
Perrotfish said:
Does anyone know what the health standards are for joining the after leaving active duty, vs transitioning directly to the reserves from active duty? I really don't want to commit to the reserves right after separating, but I have a few minor medical conditions that would be a problem if I was held the same standards as a new recruit.
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Anything other than a direct transfer will require you to meet accession standards (at least with the usual waivers)
 
For Navy people: when do I need to make the decision about active reserves vs getting out? Is it when I turn in my papers 9 month from my EDS? Or can I change my mind up until the day I get out?

I am still considering the reserves, but I don't think I would be able to commit until I knew what type of job I'm getting. This obviously wouldn't be compatible with a clinic partnership. A large academic hospitalist group though might work.
 
61November said:
Are they kicking ppl out of IRR now or can you stay in there forever like the old days?
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My understanding is they finally wised up to that scam.

Does anyone know, other than drilling, how you get points while in the reserves? I heard there were some kind of correspondence work you can do?
 
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