str8flexed said:
I know they pay you throughout medical school and your residency, but then afterwards, how much lower is the pay? It says you start at $100,000, which sounds much lower than what other doctors may make ($200,000+). Correct me if I'm wrong on these figures.
My background ... I'm a Navy USUHS grad (2002), interned at Bethesda, did a 3 year GMO tour, and will be going back to do a Navy residency this summer.
The answer is ... it depends. Three things affect your pay as a military physician: rank, time in service, and specialty.
Here's a typical breakdown, using the 2006 pay tables and assuming you are unmarried. (Those who are married or have dependents get a slightly higher housing allowance.)
While in school at USUHS you get paid as an active duty O-1 with zero years in service. (Even as a 4th year student, you're still "zero years in service" because time in medical school does not count toward pay or retirement.)
- base pay - $2416/month
- housing and food allowance (tax free) - $1711/month
- bonuses - none
Total of $4127/month or $49.5K/year while in medical school.
Upon graduation, you are promoted to O-3. As an intern at Bethesda (Navy) or Walter Reed (Army) you'd get paid as an O-3 with zero years time in service:
- base pay - $3221/month
- housing and food allowance (tax free) - $2116/month
- bonuses - $100/month
Total of $5437/month or $65K/year while an intern.
As a resident, the bonus goes up to $466/month so you're at $5803/month or $69.5K/year. Also, once you're done with med school, your time in service clock starts ticking. An O-3 with 4 years in service makes about $1000/month more than an O-3 with 0 years, so toward the end of residency you'd make around $6800/month or $81K/year.
Pay is adjusted for inflation each year ... usually about a 3% increase every January.
After residency, your specialty comes into play. All board cert physicians get another $15K bonus each year, plus a specialty bonus, plus a "board certified" bonus of about $200/month. The specialty bonuses reflect the supposed needs of the military ... a few current examples
- anesthesiology $36K
- derm $18K
- FP $13K
- GI $26K
- GS $29K
- OB/GYN $31K
- peds $12K
- rad $36K
This is also a yearly bonus.
So an anesthesiologist straight out of residency, still in the Bethesda or Walter Reed area, would be an O-3 with 4 years creditable service:
- base pay - $4297/month
- housing and food allowance (tax free) - $2116/month
- bonuses - $466/month VSP + $15K/year ASP + $36K/year ISP + $208/month BCP
Roughly $136,000/year.
A pediatrician would be around $112,000/year.
General medical officers (GMOs) are doctors the military chooses to send to the line between their PGY-1 and PGY-2 years for a utilization tour ... they get paid as residents do, plus the $15K/year bonus.
str8flexed said:
So after residency, I start the 7 years active duty requirement--where I'm paid lower--or do these 7 years include residency? If I quit after the 7 years, would it be hard to find employment in a non-military hospital?
The 7 years of payback do not include residency. Residency incurs an additional 1:1 obligation, but that obligation is served concurrently with the USUHS obligation, so in practice it doesn't result in extra time for USUHS students (HPSP may or may not work out differently).
Quick example:
- go to USUHS & graduate = 7 years USU obligation
- do internship for a year = no payback done, 7 years USU obligation + 1 year GME obligation (to be served concurrently)
- do gas residency for 3 years = no payback done, 7 years USU obligation + 4 year GME obligation (to be served concurrently)
- serve 7 years in the fleet as an anesthesiologist
- get out or stay in
Example for a USUHS student who does a 3-year flight surgery (GMO) tour:
- go to USUHS & graduate = 7 years USU obligation
- do internship for a year = no payback done, 7 years USU obligation + 1 year GME obligation (to be served concurrently)
- do GMO tour for 3 years = 3 years payback done = 4 years USU obligation + 0 years GME obligation left
- do FP residency for 2 years = 4 years USU obligation + 2 year GME obligation (to be served concurrently)
- serve 4 years in the fleet as an FP
- get out or stay in
And an HPSP example to illustrate how an HPSP student might get screwed unknowingly if he does a GMO tour:
- graduate on HPSP = 4 years HPSP obligation
- do internship for a year = no payback done, 4 years HPSP obligation + 1 year GME obligation (to be served concurrently)
- do GMO tour for 3 years = 3 years payback done = 1 years HPSP obligation + 0 years GME obligation left
- do a 4 year residency = 1 year HPSP obligation + 4 year GME obligation (to be served concurrently)
- serve 4 years in the fleet as whatever
- get out or stay in
This is how an HPSP student might end up serving 7 years to fulfil his obligation. Most HPSP students don't understand this and only get clued in after they find out they have to do a GMO tour. This happens a lot in the Navy (because most Navy docs do GMO tours) and less often in the Army or Air Force.
HPSP students should know that they may be required to do a GMO tour despite their wishes to go straight from PGY-1 to PGY-2 (internship to residency), and that if they then choose to do a military residency, they may end up paying back just as many years as a USUHS grad. For this (and other) reasons lots of HPSP students will pay back their 3-4 years as GMOs, get out, and do civilian residencies.
