Funding for PGY-2 who starts over at new PGY-1 position

[Gen3ricDO]

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Hello,
I am a current TY resident who matched ortho. I will be starting over as a Intern in ortho next year. I signed a contract already with the program to be paid as a pgy-2 next year. The Hospital administration in charge of funding objected to this even though my contract has already been signed by the parties involved and asked that I sign a different contract paying me as a PGY-1.

There are 2 other residents in my program who did TYs before doing ortho and they are paid by their actual PGY year from graduation not what year they are in the program. The program was previously AOA and now has ACGME and the administration claims they were grandfathered in and that wouldn’t happen for me.

Does anyone know the actual rule on this? Is there a resource someone could point me towards. I already signed my contract, so I don’t see how this is even possible, but if I’m legally supposed to be paid as a pgy-1, then I will sign the new contract. Just want to do some research.

@aProgDirector

 

[Piebaldi]

Hello,
I am a current TY resident who matched ortho. I will be starting over as a Intern in ortho next year. I signed a contract already with the program to be paid as a pgy-2 next year. The Hospital administration in charge of funding objected to this even though my contract has already been signed by the parties involved and asked that I sign a different contract paying me as a PGY-1.

There are 2 other residents in my program who did TYs before doing ortho and they are paid by their actual PGY year from graduation not what year they are in the program. The program was previously AOA and now has ACGME and the administration claims they were grandfathered in and that wouldn’t happen for me.

Does anyone know the actual rule on this? Is there a resource someone could point me towards. I already signed my contract, so I don’t see how this is even possible, but if I’m legally supposed to be paid as a pgy-1, then I will sign the new contract. Just want to do some research.

@aProgDirector

I am confused - will you be a PGY1 or 2? A TY doesn't count for Ortho, so you said you'd be starting over as an intern? Intern is PGY1. I had a similar scenario - did prelim, PGY1, then did Rads, then transferred into Categorical PM&R so I started over as a PGY1 and was paid as such.
So will you be a PGY1 surgery intern? Or a PGY2 Ortho person? I am not sure what you mean by hospital administration - to my knowledge GME is in charge of this, not hospital admin.

 

[Apollyon]

I was a resident at Duke, more than 15 years ago. However, I had done a prelim IM year before that (ironically, in the news now, at Elmhurst). I was paid at Duke as a PGY-2.

So, it's not unprecedented.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

There's no rule, this is completely institution dependent. At my shop, you'd be paid as a PGY-1. But other places may do it differently.

 

[augeremt]

You get paid for whatever position you have at the hospital. So if you're going to be an intern, then you should be getting paid as a PGY-1.

A friend of mine did 3 years of general surgery before switching specialties and starting as an intern all over again in the new specialty. Got PGY-1 salary, even though he technically could've been a PGY-4 at that point.

 

[erdoc111]

Ask if you can keep your PGY 2 salary but offer to get paid as PGY 2 again next year and see if they agree to this compromise since this year's contact is already signed.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

That isn't a compromise, it's the status quo. No matter what the OP does, they will not get paid as a PGY-3 next year.

What you should do is graciously re-sign a PGY-1 contract. Sure, you could make a stink about it and demand that they honor your contract. But do you really want to get off on the wrong foot with your program before you even start? Usually the salary difference just isn't worth it.

Theoretically, the program could honor your contract -- and schedule you as a PGY-2. They would hire a new PGY-1 into the spot you were supposed to have. Then, when you massively underperform at the PGY-2 level (since you didn't have a surgical PGY-1), they would be in their full rights to fire you. Super unlikely that they would do this, but it's just as defensible as your insisting on a PGY-2 salary.

 

[Piebaldi]

That isn't a compromise, it's the status quo. No matter what the OP does, they will not get paid as a PGY-3 next year.

What you should do is graciously re-sign a PGY-1 contract. Sure, you could make a stink about it and demand that they honor your contract. But do you really want to get off on the wrong foot with your program before you even start? Usually the salary difference just isn't worth it.

Theoretically, the program could honor your contract -- and schedule you as a PGY-2. They would hire a new PGY-1 into the spot you were supposed to have. Then, when you massively underperform at the PGY-2 level (since you didn't have a surgical PGY-1), they would be in their full rights to fire you. Super unlikely that they would do this, but it's just as defensible as your insisting on a PGY-2 salary.

This is completely unrelated to this post so sorry to hijack the thread, but aPD I was wondering how youa re handling your residents at your program? I was told by one of my former colleagues that at their fellowship they are havng them do 2 week rotations and self quarantine the other 2! seemed odd to me so i was curious.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

We are keeping with our original schedule, but everyone on elective/outpatient/research is on a home based rotation. We use those residents to help cover when someone on inpatient goes out due to exposure/quarantine. We have plans to mobilize everyone as the surge increases.

 

[Gen3ricDO]

I for some reason didn’t get notifications that anyone responded to this thread. Thank you all for you replies. I signed the contract to be paid as a PGY-1. It makes sense, I was just confused since I had previously gotten a contract to be paid as a pgy-2. I didn’t make a fuss about it since 2 people in my program are getting paid as their true pgy level and I didn’t want them to lose money too. Frustrating that it wasn’t uniform across everyone but it looks like moving forward they are trying to pay based on year in the program.