Navy Incentive Pay Increases

[militaryPHYS]

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What are everybody’s thoughts on the first “real” pay bump for incentive pays since 2017?

Only closed the gap a small percent, but significant in the fact that we are finally seeing increases.

 

[DrMetal]

What are everybody’s thoughts on the first “real” pay bump for incentive pays since 2017?

Only closed the gap a small percent, but significant in the fact that we are finally seeing increases.

For primary care and non-proceduralists, I think it's great (I took the bait, I'll be in Shaw Shank for a while). With these bonuses, and with the right BAH, we're making $100-$150/year more than our civilian counterparts. With the dearth of patients in our MHS hospitals and clinic, the job isn't so hard, and won't be hard for the foreseeable future.

Unless of course we go to war with China . . . I guess that's what we're really being paid for, to be on standby should all hell break loose.

 

[Apollyon]

"Don't get into a land war in Asia!"

 

[armytrainingsir]

Glad to hear of a pay bump!
How much more did yall get?

 

[SirGecko]

Depends on the specialty. Some didn’t go up (family, Peds, internal medicine). Some went up less (dermatology by 5k) and some increased more (pathology by 11k or “sub specialty category 1” ie some fellowship trained surgeons by 13k I think was the biggest delta)

 

[pgg]

What are everybody’s thoughts on the first “real” pay bump for incentive pays since 2017?

Only closed the gap a small percent, but significant in the fact that we are finally seeing increases.

I'm really glad to hear it. Well deserved, and overdue.

 

[flightdoc09]

I think, based off the retention pitches I keep hearing, and all the higher ups supposedly very interested in "how can we keep you" if you're thinking about getting out, along with this, that they're seeing physicians leaving faster than they think they can be replaced. I know in EM, a lot of folks are getting out as soon as their 4 years are up.

 

[SirGecko]

Yeah there are a lot of specialties that have the same problem. (Vast majority not staying beyond their commitment) This problem is compounded for some by the decisions that were made years ago to cut training spots. Unfortunately as well as communities become undermanned it makes the DoD worse to work for. Worse for detailing, worse for scope of practice, worse for workload, worse for training opportunities. I’m glad to see them making some incremental changes to the pay problem but honestly I don’t think it’s enough to move the needle. They need more drastic changes that help the underlying architecture of the DoD as an employer.

 

[pgg]

Part of the retention issue is that civilian salaries for many specialties have dramatically increased since COVID.

There's always been a substantial pay gap between civilian and military physician pay (obviously some specialties moreso than others), but the gap has really started to stretch the last few years. The job I took the day I left the Navy in June 2022, now pays about 30-40% more than it did the day I left. Anesthesia is one of the more extreme examples, but I see others demanding (and getting) more also.

Add in the cumulative effects of post-COVID inflation, and military physicians were really getting screwed by stagnant pay.

Very glad to see the military has started to make some progress there. It wouldn't surprise me if it's not enough to significantly improve retention though.

 

[pgg]

I think, based off the retention pitches I keep hearing, and all the higher ups supposedly very interested in "how can we keep you" if you're thinking about getting out, along with this, that they're seeing physicians leaving faster than they think they can be replaced. I know in EM, a lot of folks are getting out as soon as their 4 years are up.

EM has always been a little weird in the military.

There has always been a lot of interest from med students. The kind of people who join the military are sort of tilted toward the stereotypical ER adventure seeking adrenaline junkie types. I think the EM interest group was by far the largest when I was at USUHS.

I think a lot of them dream of combat trauma, gunshot wounds and blast injuries and traumatic amputations and tough airways and chest tubes and emergency thoractotomies and amazing saves ... and a Role 2 or Role 3 center in a combat zone as the ultimate ER. (And that really is an amazing practice setting ... for the 0-3% of a career one could expect to do that.)

Then reality sets in and the actual military EM practice turns out to be astonishingly low acuity sick call plagued with bull**** URIs and malingerers who don't want to go to work. It's only been recently that more than a handful of military ERs anywhere started allowing civilian trauma through the gate at all.

Low pay, lame work, all the hassles of military bureaucracy, deployments ... the pipeline stays full of starry eyed youngsters who dream of combat emergency medicine, but in the end it's no surprise at all to me that EM leads the charge for the exit door.

 

[DrMetal]

EM has always been a little weird in the military.

The specialty as a whole (military or civilian) has become a mess. Most ERs are not Level 1s, are glorified urgent cares, festered with drug seekers and patients who refuse to use their primary care networks for chronic issues. With hospitals accepting all for care, refusing to turn anyone away (even for clear, non-emergencies), demands on decreasing LOS and increasing patient satisfaction (no matter how stupid the request) . . . Emergency Medicine has become anything but Medicine.

The specialty will surely be replaced by an army of NPs with chatbots-iPads.

I think a lot of them dream of combat trauma, gunshot wounds and blast injuries and traumatic amputations and tough airways and chest tubes and emergency thoractotomies

Yeah, all of which is better seen in the civilian world.

 

[militaryPHYS]

I’m rolling around in my 1,776 dollar bills this week

 

[TheEarDoc]

I’m rolling around in my 1,776 dollar bills this week

No 30 days of active duty for me this year in the reserve. 28 days........no freedom dollars for this salty field grade......