resident "furloughs"

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Question for those of you out there with more detailed understanding of how we as residents get paid...

My husband is a resident at a state university program. All of the state employees, INCLUDING the medical residents in the various health systems across the state, were informed a few weeks ago of mandatory furloughs that would be taking place. In return for what amounts to $500 taken out of their paychecks for two months (they're doing it all at once to "get it over with"- aka get their money and leave little time for us to organize and fight it), and two "furlough days" (haha, right).

Various program directors have said that the furlough days will be given at the end of their chief years OR that furlough day requests have to be approved by the chief residents- meaning you have to be the loser that asks for your silly furlough day (not gonna happen).

Now, I am angry, we don't have children but this is a pretty big hit for us for these two months. I was under the impression that the majority of our salaries are paid by FEDERAL medicare dollars, with a portion coming from state medicaid money. I fail to see how docking resident salaries is entirely legal....seems like the state is double dipping from the federal government....

Quick google search reveals similar situation in AZ, but medical residents were considered exempt.

Any thoughts on this situation? We are all feeling taken advantage of because of our lack of money and time and thus, lack of fighting power (get used to it, I know).

 

[ozzie20]

Question for those of you out there with more detailed understanding of how we as residents get paid...

My husband is a resident at a state university program. All of the state employees, INCLUDING the medical residents in the various health systems across the state, were informed a few weeks ago of mandatory furloughs that would be taking place. In return for what amounts to $500 taken out of their paychecks for two months (they're doing it all at once to "get it over with"- aka get their money and leave little time for us to organize and fight it), and two "furlough days" (haha, right).

Various program directors have said that the furlough days will be given at the end of their chief years OR that furlough day requests have to be approved by the chief residents- meaning you have to be the loser that asks for your silly furlough day (not gonna happen).

Now, I am angry, we don't have children but this is a pretty big hit for us for these two months. I was under the impression that the majority of our salaries are paid by FEDERAL medicare dollars, with a portion coming from state medicaid money. I fail to see how docking resident salaries is entirely legal....seems like the state is double dipping from the federal government....

Quick google search reveals similar situation in AZ, but medical residents were considered exempt.

Any thoughts on this situation? We are all feeling taken advantage of because of our lack of money and time and thus, lack of fighting power (get used to it, I know).

whatever they are doing, it doesn't sound ethical, and may be illegal. I've spoken to other PD's in the area, they all stated to me that medicare pays 150,000/year/resident for "training". The fact they are taking out an extra 500/month out of YOUR salary seems like they are passing the charges onto you, and keeping their profit margin the same.

 

[ssmallz]

We had 2 furlough days in our ORs. The staff got the day off, only "emergency" cases were done and resident still had to work but our paychecks were not affected. The only people whose paychecks were affected were the OR staff b/c they were in fact state employees. I'm not sure if it works differently in your state

 

[cchoukal]

I'm a fellow in a state with a notoriously bad financial situation (wanna guess?) and the university system had a large (25%) cut in its annual appropriation from the state. The response has been that the U system wants to cut salaries 8% "across the board," (nevermind that our branch receives a miniscule amount of our total budget from the state, they still want the 8% cut). There's been no mention of how/if this will affect residents and fellows, but the presumption has been that we'd be UNaffected because our money doesn't come from the state. That said, like I mentioned above, our state university system wants us to cut money from piles that also don't come from the state, so I guess they think they can make us do whatever they want. I'm watching nervously...

The thing is, politically, it's a tough thing to ask around about. I mean, you're a resident or a fellow or whatever, and you'll act all indignant that they're cutting your salary, but the person in your dept you're asking (be it the PD, the administrative people, or whomever) will ALSO be taking a cut, so they may not be very sympathetic. Everyone says we're lucky we still get to work in our field of training (unlike a lot of law school graduates, for example), but a cut of $500/month like the OP faces would be a BIG hit to me...

 

[Apollyon]

I'm a fellow in a state with a notoriously bad financial situation (wanna guess?)

Actually, considering California and Hawai'i right now, among others with which I'm not acquainted, it's not a slam dunk (almost, but not quite).

 

[urge]

I don't think programs are allowed to furlough residents due to ACGME requirements. They should contact the ACGME and make them aware.

$1000 for 2 days off is ridiculous anyway. Residents make about 50k for >230 days/yr of work not taking call into account. Do the math. Their pay is less than $220/day.

They can cut their salary for the oncoming year, though.

 

[Southpaw]

Any thoughts on this situation? We are all feeling taken advantage of because of our lack of money and time and thus, lack of fighting power (get used to it, I know).

As urge said, I'd contact the ACGME to atleast make them aware and get their thoughts on the situation. I'm not sure about your husband's program, but I'm only allowed a set amount of time off each year, which over the length of my residency training period equates to the maximum time off I'm allowed during residency. If I were forced to take furlough days I'd be taking more days than allowed by my contract, and I'd have to make these days up in order to finish training.

 

[cchoukal]

I don't think programs are allowed to furlough residents due to ACGME requirements. They should contact the ACGME and make them aware.

$1000 for 2 days off is ridiculous anyway. Residents make about 50k for >230 days/yr of work not taking call into account. Do the math. Their pay is less than $220/day.

They can cut their salary for the oncoming year, though.

Urge makes a really good point. Contact the ACGME.

He's right, too, that they can cut your salary for the upcoming year. Yes, they get a certain amount from the Fed to train you, but, ultimately, the hospital GME committee decides things like salary, benefits, etc. Many places are talking about getting rid of parking subsidies and on-call food money (my program was talking about this 2-3 years ago), so I suspect even if you/we don't get furloughed (or even if we do), there WILL be other areas on increased cost.

 

[Monty Python]

Question for those of you out there with more detailed understanding of how we as residents get paid...

My husband is a resident at a state university program. All of the state employees, INCLUDING the medical residents in the various health systems across the state, were informed a few weeks ago of mandatory furloughs that would be taking place. In return for what amounts to $500 taken out of their paychecks for two months (they're doing it all at once to "get it over with"- aka get their money and leave little time for us to organize and fight it), and two "furlough days" (haha, right).

Various program directors have said that the furlough days will be given at the end of their chief years OR that furlough day requests have to be approved by the chief residents- meaning you have to be the loser that asks for your silly furlough day (not gonna happen).

Now, I am angry, we don't have children but this is a pretty big hit for us for these two months. I was under the impression that the majority of our salaries are paid by FEDERAL medicare dollars, with a portion coming from state medicaid money. I fail to see how docking resident salaries is entirely legal....seems like the state is double dipping from the federal government....

Quick google search reveals similar situation in AZ, but medical residents were considered exempt.

Any thoughts on this situation? We are all feeling taken advantage of because of our lack of money and time and thus, lack of fighting power (get used to it, I know).

Is your husband an actual employee of the state as a resident? Is he earning service credit towards state retirement with a state pension? If not, then he's not a state employee. The state would have no right to cut the resident's work hours or pay, unlike the poor slobs who do work for the state.

Does your husband receive an annual W-2 tax form or a form 1099?

 

[Gern Blansten]

I don't think programs are allowed to furlough residents due to ACGME requirements. They should contact the ACGME and make them aware.

Pretty sure Urge is correct. There are a max number of days that one can be absent from the program and still graduate on schedule. If these furlough days cause a person to exceed that number, they need to be tacked on to the end of the residency. All in all, seems unfair and probably not legal with the ACGME. The hospital and state administrators need to be told they can either be in the business of training doctors and do it correctly, or get out of the business completely. These types piss me off.
The OP and others affected should definitely investigate with the ACGME. All it takes is a phone call to the headquarters to alert them. They can do the rest. I would be surprised if the ACGME was complicit with this.

 

[nutmegs]

Pretty sure Urge is correct. There are a max number of days that one can be absent from the program and still graduate on schedule. If these furlough days cause a person to exceed that number, they need to be tacked on to the end of the residency. All in all, seems unfair and probably not legal with the ACGME. The hospital and state administrators need to be told they can either be in the business of training doctors and do it correctly, or get out of the business completely. These types piss me off.
The OP and others affected should definitely investigate with the ACGME. All it takes is a phone call to the headquarters to alert them. They can do the rest. I would be surprised if the ACGME was complicit with this.

We don't get state employee benefits but got furloughed as well. Interestingly, post-doc research fellows didn't. 😕 I am curious if anyone has contacted the ACGME. If you have, send me a PM. Thanks.

 

[MTGas2B]

Sounds like a crappy situation. One thing I learned this past year is that although medicare does pay teaching hospitals for residents, those number have been frozen for quite some time, almost ten years I want to say (maybe a bit less). So, no annual adjustments for inflation, no increase if your program has added new spots since things were frozen. Each hospitals per resident rate was frozen based on the costs at that time. So if your program was raking it in for residents back then, they get that same number now. If your program reported their costs weren't that high, they are still getting the same piddly amount. From what I understand, earlier on the per resident rate was individualized by hospital based on what they reported as the cost to have residents.

I had always assumed the medicare money grew with inflation, that we could add spots and get more money. The freeze has really caused the number of residency spots to stay pretty flat.