Military Medicine

[deleted992700]

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So this 00E67 and then subsequent re-branch back in to the medical corps after graduation is all non-obligation reserve time? So you get paid for your drill and AT days, plus earn points towards a reserve retirement but you aren't receiving a stipend or loan repayment? This is all good info and stuff I know very little about.

What is the point though? If your loans aren't getting paid and you aren't super Hooah/Oorah about MilMed...aren't they just subjecting themselves to headaches/pitfalls of drills during med school/residency and risk of possible deployments? Seems like this would be a good option only for people super duper Hooah who just want to be serving but don't want to be incurring payback and are OK with student loans. Maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks for your time and help with this @notdeadyet ; I think we are all learning something.

i’m just getting loan repayment after residency for 6 years so I don’t have to worry about other obligations or my IRR.

 

[deleted992700]

I don’t know anything about educational delays. Isn’t that for ROTC folks? After you graduate from medical school, you will re-branch again to Medical Corps and you will receive an AOC based on your specialty.

Your years as an 00E67 count for retirement. You are in drill status. Keep in mind it’s just reserve point retirement. Also keep in mind that you need a minimum to have a “good year” for retirement. You can google that stuff.

I’d talk to an AMEDD recruiter. They handle direct accession as well as folks coming in from Active and the RC. What you’d be doing is incredibly specific, so I wouldn’t go with another kind of recruiter.

1. How kind of and how many years of contract am I signing for before medical school and residency? A regular office AR contract ?
2. Isn't it a little too good to be true to be paid 40k a year just to serve one year back in the AR ?

 

[pgg]

We'll have to see how this plays out. I'm hopeful DHA will get it done, but have been disappointed in the execution of this plan when driven by individual commands for 7 or 8 years now.

Just read an email that stated in part

[...] the opportunity to visit the University Medical Center (UMC) to learn about the benefits of the Nellis partnership with this leading Las Vegas provider. Through this partnership Air Force physicians, nurses and technicians are able to temporarily work and train at UMC of Southern Nevada to help ensure they stay current and maintain the highest levels of readiness.

It appears that at least one arrangement has been made with a civilian institution, that includes a fairly wide range of active duty staff times. This doesn't look like the usual one-off, single specialty kind of thing I've been seeing. On the face of it this sounds encouraging.

Anyone know more about the UMC - Nellis partnership?

Was this a locally driven project, or something led by DHA?

 

[deleted992700]

Just read an email that stated in part



It appears that at least one arrangement has been made with a civilian institution, that includes a fairly wide range of active duty staff times. This doesn't look like the usual one-off, single specialty kind of thing I've been seeing. On the face of it this sounds encouraging.

Anyone know more about the UMC - Nellis partnership?

Was this a locally driven project, or something led by DHA?

I was actually sent on a reserve AT mission led by the AR/DHA to be trained at a civilian hospital last year, as a medic

 

[vcentwin]

military medicine: boring as heck in peacetime, but goes from 0-60 when the Russians/Iranians/North Koreans/Red Chinese decide to play ball with us.

I am no political ideologue, but when **** hits the fan, our servicemembers are going to need the best medical care possible; Peer/Near peer adversaries are not to be underestimated. We underestimated the Iraqi/Taliban insurgency and now look where we are with those two nations.

 

[notdeadyet]

1. How kind of and how many years of contract am I signing for before medical school and residency? A regular office AR contract ?

If you are not taking incentives, it’s just the standard reserve corps contract.

It may not look daunting to you, but for new accessions, it’s typically a 6 year drilling hitch (+ 2 years IRR).

2. Isn't it a little too good to be true to be paid 40k a year just to serve one year back in the AR ?

God no. It only looks that way from the outside.

Let’s say I drill one weekend a month for a year. That’s two shifts I could have moonlighted. My last moonlighting gig in a local ER was $215/hour for 10 hour shifts. I can knock out two of those instead of a drill weekend. That’s $4300 per drill weekend, in which you’d probably be getting less than $600 in military pay. Say a $3700 differential. That comes to $44,400 per year. A fair bit more than the scholarship.

And that doesn’t even include the 2 weeks of AT. If I just did 2 weeks of 40 hours of moonlighting, that would be another $17,200. And I’d have my weekends free. And not be sleeping in a tent.

And for all the above, keep in mind I’m just quoting psychiatrist RESIDENT moonlighting rates. Other specialists have a much bigger opportunity cost.

 

[deleted992700]

If you are not taking incentives, it’s just the standard reserve corps contract.

It may not look daunting to you, but for new accessions, it’s typically a 6 year drilling hitch (+ 2 years IRR).

God no. It only looks that way from the outside.

Let’s say I drill one weekend a month for a year. That’s two shifts I could have moonlighted. My last moonlighting gig in a local ER was $215/hour for 10 hour shifts. I can knock out two of those instead of a drill weekend. That’s $4300 per drill weekend, in which you’d probably be getting less than $600 in military pay. Say a $3700 differential. That comes to $44,400. A fair bit more than the scholarship.

And that doesn’t even include the 2 weeks of AT. If I just did 2 weeks of 40 hours of moonlighting, that would be another $17,200. And I’d have my weekends free. And not be sleeping in a tent.

And for all the above, keep in mind I’m just quoting psychiatrist RESIDENT moonlighting rates. Other specialists have a much bigger opportunity cost.

Love this. Thank you !

 

[notdeadyet]

Love this. Thank you !

No worries.

I’m not enticing you to not join. I’m under no obligation and am still in the reserve corps 10 years later.

It just helps to want to do it for good reasons and with both eyes open. We most definitely don’t make the same sacrifices as those on the active side of the house, but everything comes at a cost. Make sure those costs are worth it to you. I used the loan repayment and am targeted for paying off med school entirely 4 years after finishing fellowship (with a lot of moonlighting and frugal living). But I could have done the same thing on the same timeline with more freedom without the military.

Do some navel gazing and make sure it’s the right call for you.

 

[deleted992700]

No worries.

I’m not enticing you to not join. I’m under no obligation and am still in the reserve corps 10 years later.

It just helps to want to do it for good reasons and with both eyes open. We most definitely don’t make the same sacrifices as those on the active side of the house, but everything comes at a cost. Make sure those costs are worth it to you. I used the loan repayment and am targeted for paying off med school entirely 4 years after finishing fellowship (with a lot of moonlighting and frugal living). But I could have done the same thing on the same timeline with more freedom without the military.

Do some navel gazing and make sure it’s the right call for you.

Will do ! Will keep y'all updated 🙂 Thanks for all your help !!!

 

[outwardbound]

Anyone know if there is a ranking of military residency programs offered specifically for the Army? I'm ARMY HPSP and looking for the best IM and psych training programs.

 

[Medic741]

Anyone know if there is a ranking of military residency programs offered specifically for the Army? I'm ARMY HPSP and looking for the best IM and psych training programs.

Ranking doesn’t really exist but Darnall just opened a new site in fort hood for c/o 2021. You’ll also have Tripler and Walter reed to pick from. Haven’t heard a bad thing about any of them!

 

[SCMDstudent]

Question about the HPSP specific rules. My dad did the HPSP back in 2000. He was able to go directly into a civilian residency because of the high demand for his specialty (no GMO time), and then he served 4 years active duty.
Question - under the current rules and experiences, what are the chances of doing a civilian residency after graduation if you do not match in the military? However, if you do match a military residency, is there a GMO commitment before you can begin the residency or do you go directly into the residency program? The military scholarship website states that they do not dictate what residencies a student may choose for residency - but when my dad was in the program, they did not allow certain specialties as the "needs of the military" did not need that specialty. Is this still the case? Thank you.

 

[SirGecko]

If the military doesn’t think they need a certain type of doctor you can’t train in it. So they won’t force you to do a specific residency but they will force you *not* to do a specific residency. Civilian deferments are dependent on the needs of the military and will vary year to year. In the current GME environment it is probably safest to assume you won’t be deferred to civilian.

If you do match deferred for residency you would go straight to whatever you matched. That doesn’t necessarily mean goingstraight through for residency. The Navy at least has in the past pushed some interns to match just for intern year as a civilian and they still had to renter the residency match or gmo the next year.

matching is slightly different for different services. Navy only matches intern year and you have to enter the residency match or decide to do a gmo tour in intern year.

 

[SCMDstudent]

If the military doesn’t think they need a certain type of doctor you can’t train in it. So they won’t force you to do a specific residency but they will force you *not* to do a specific residency. Civilian deferments are dependent on the needs of the military and will vary year to year. In the current GME environment it is probably safest to assume you won’t be deferred to civilian.

If you do match deferred for residency you would go straight to whatever you matched. That doesn’t necessarily mean goingstraight through for residency. The Navy at least has in the past pushed some interns to match just for intern year as a civilian and they still had to renter the residency match or gmo the next year.

matching is slightly different for different services. Navy only matches intern year and you have to enter the residency match or decide to do a gmo tour in intern year.

Thank you - that was very helpful.

 

[DoctorDoom]

Anyone know more about the UMC - Nellis partnership?

Was this a locally driven project, or something led by DHA?

Locally driven by Nellis command from what people there told me; Nellis has been very aggressive about working with local health systems, including the local VA. Apparently this is driven partly by UMC standing up their own medical school, partly by the general lack of medical care in the Las Vegas Valley, and in the aftermath of the October 1, 2017 mass shooting, opened the door for a lot of local cooperative efforts between milmed/VA/UMC.