VA jobs - insiders only?

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CaptainCool said:
Sometimes they just do that. I applied to one about 4 years ago and after the deadline got a notification saying I was in the “highly preferred” category or something. 4 months go by and I hear nothing so I emailed the HR person at the VA location and he was like “oh yeah, we decided not to fill that location with a podiatrist. People who need a podiatrist can just drive to a different VA.” Another interesting nugget he told me was that over 100 people applied for the one opening, so it wasn’t like they didn’t have a pool of people to pick from.
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Over 100!? Holy crap.
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CutsWithFury said:
I agree its completed screwed up. Especially since the location made a lot of sense for me and my family. I was informed in February I had the job. Then I put in my salary requests with the chief of surgery who I spoke at least 2-3 times on the phone and conversed with via e-mail. I essentially told him if they are looking to hire their first surgical podiatrist then the top of end of the pay scale needs to happen. They wanted me to start a residency program as well. I really think admin there is just super cheap and wanted me to be a surgical podiatrist on a general podiatrist pay scale which would have never worked. So rather than make a decision they cancelled the job or basically put it on the backburner. I am glad I did not plan my life around this decision.
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CutsWithFury said:
I agree its completed screwed up. Especially since the location made a lot of sense for me and my family. I was informed in February I had the job. Then I put in my salary requests with the chief of surgery who I spoke at least 2-3 times on the phone and conversed with via e-mail. I essentially told him if they are looking to hire their first surgical podiatrist then the top of end of the pay scale needs to happen. They wanted me to start a residency program as well. I really think admin there is just super cheap and wanted me to be a surgical podiatrist on a general podiatrist pay scale which would have never worked. So rather than make a decision they cancelled the job or basically put it on the backburner. I am glad I did not plan my life around this decision.
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This is strange. They can not take away a job offer just for negotiating and they did not do this.....they eliminated the position.

It is possible something came up and they had to eliminate the position, but my guess is they tried hard to hire you and the bureaucracy just made it too hard to adjust the salary range and job title from the original general podiatry job listing. They might have to cancel this job listing and approve the new surgical job position with higher pay and start over.

Either way sorry this happened to you.
 
icebreaker32 said:
This is strange. They can not take away a job offer just for negotiating and they did not do this.....they eliminated the position.

It is possible something came up and they had to eliminate the position, but my guess is they tried hard to hire you and the bureaucracy just made it too hard to adjust the salary range and job title from the original general podiatry job listing. They might have to cancel this job listing and approve the new surgical job position with higher pay and start over.

Either way sorry this happened to you.
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That’s prob what happened. HR did say cancel and I received an email that said “This referral certificate has been returned as canceled and/or unused”.

So they might continue to discuss this and then relist the job as surgical podiatrist. If that happened HR told me they would direct hire me at that point in time. It’s all very strange.

Regardless I signed with a large hospital system in the Midwest which is paying me more money than I was making before at my last hospital job so it is what it is. Everything fell into place.
 
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CutsWithFury said:
That’s prob what happened. HR did say cancel and I received an email that said “This referral certificate has been returned as canceled and/or unused”.

So they might continue to discuss this and then relist the job as surgical podiatrist. If that happened HR told me they would direct hire me at that point in time. It’s all very strange.

Regardless I signed with a large hospital system in the Midwest which is paying me more money than I was making before at my last hospital job so it is what it is. Everything fell into place.
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Honestly I would say you’re better off.

It is totally asinine of them to expect you to sit and wait months/years for a position that may/may not ever be created just on a “promise” that they will hire you if it that happens. Who would sit around in that situation?
 
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SouthPod7 said:
Honestly I would say you’re better off.

It is totally asinine of them to expect you to sit and wait months/years for a position that may/may not ever be created just on a “promise” that they will hire you if it that happens. Who would sit around in that situation?
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Nobody would which is why this particular VA hospital struggles to bring good docs into he hospital even though its in one of the nicest cities in the USA. If admin can't get it together then working there I think would not be that great either. The department is really struggling and they lose a lot of VA patients to community podiatrists.
 
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Good thing there’s another pod school opening.
 
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ToeFather said:
They should close barry. No offense to the alumni but that school sucks
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While I agree Barry sucks - the other graduates I've met from Temple and NYCPM haven't really impressed me either lol. Let's just shut down 3 of them, and create an artificial pod shortage. That way maybe we can actually get paid more than our RN peers.
 
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zircushio said:
While I agree Barry sucks - the other graduates I've met from Temple and NYCPM haven't really impressed me either lol. Let's just shut down 3 of them, and create an artificial pod shortage. That way maybe we can actually get paid more than our RN peers.
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I should have been a nurse. I could have done travel nursing getting 1.5x my salary and having my housing paid for. Live in every nice city in the country and crush it on tinder. Then when I got tired of that I could be an APRN and get better scope of practice than podiatry. Maybe be nurse anesthesia and then make more money than 95% of the podiatry profession.
 
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CutsWithFury said:
I should have been a nurse. I could have done travel nursing getting 1.5x my salary and having my housing paid for. Live in every nice city in the country and crush it on tinder. Then when I got tired of that I could be an APRN and get better scope of practice than podiatry. Maybe be nurse anesthesia and then make more money than 95% of the podiatry profession.
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You and me both pal. I know so many RN's that paid off all their debts, bought a house or two, trying to suck up as many travel contracts as they could. Some making 4-6k a week, with housing paid for. Those higher paying ones are in the middle of nowhere.

That being said, there are 3.8 million nurses nationwide versus ~18,000 podiatrists in the United States. Probably half of those pods are doing surgery which would make it more like 10k surgical trained pods (my guess). How is there such a MASSIVE demand for nurses that see 6 patients a shift versus the 20+ patients pods see per day that can justify hospitals paying more than ~250,000$/year in travel contracts per nurse? I don't get it. And don't get me wrong, I believe all healthcare workers should get a massive pay raise, but it kind of breaks my heart to see that we studied for so long and went through so many hoops to see such abysmal job opportunities and salaries given our relatively lower numbers per square mile. Couple this with more benefits like Perkins loans can be forgiven for nurses and it makes me really scratch my head as to what we are doing and where our leadership is.

If there was a DPM -> RN fast-track (or better, DPM -> RN -> CRNA), I bet some of us would take it. No surgical responsibility, better pay, more time off, loan forgiveness (Perkins + likely you'll be in a PSLF environment as opposed to being in a PP/MSG for full loan forgiveness in less than 10 years) --- begs the question what is our ROI on podiatry?

Someone should write an article on that. "ROI in healthcare positions - average years to break even in podiatry".
 
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zircushio said:
You and me both pal. I know so many RN's that paid off all their debts, bought a house or two, trying to suck up as many travel contracts as they could. Some making 4-6k a week, with housing paid for. Those higher paying ones are in the middle of nowhere.

That being said, there are 3.8 million nurses nationwide versus ~18,000 podiatrists in the United States. Probably half of those pods are doing surgery which would make it more like 10k surgical trained pods (my guess). How is there such a MASSIVE demand for nurses that see 6 patients a shift versus the 20+ patients pods see per day that can justify hospitals paying more than ~250,000$/year in travel contracts per nurse? I don't get it. And don't get me wrong, I believe all healthcare workers should get a massive pay raise, but it kind of breaks my heart to see that we studied for so long and went through so many hoops to see such abysmal job opportunities and salaries given our relatively lower numbers per square mile. Couple this with more benefits like Perkins loans can be forgiven for nurses and it makes me really scratch my head as to what we are doing and where our leadership is.

If there was a DPM -> RN fast-track (or better, DPM -> RN -> CRNA), I bet some of us would take it. No surgical responsibility, better pay, more time off, loan forgiveness (Perkins + likely you'll be in a PSLF environment as opposed to being in a PP/MSG for full loan forgiveness in less than 10 years) --- begs the question what is our ROI on podiatry?

Someone should write an article on that. "ROI in healthcare positions - average years to break even in podiatry".
Click to expand...
It's because nursing national association has MASSIVE lobbying power. It dwarfs podiatry. Nurses are necessary to make a hospital run. Podiatrists are not. Podiatrists historically only function in outpatient domains.

Most of the services we provide are rather redundant and it could be covered by other specialties but they really just don't want to do it. It's painful to admit but its true. This is why our growth has been rather stunted. Society doesn't really value us. MD/DO orthopedics certainly do not. Other MD/DO specialties do because we are more "available" and easier to do deal with then most orthopedists.

Majority of MD/DO acknowledge that nurses are NEEDED to make a hospital run and function. Nurses know this and its why they have been so successful in lobbying for greater scope of practice (APRN) etc etc etc.

These are the facts.
 
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CutsWithFury said:
It's because nursing national association has MASSIVE lobbying power. It dwarfs podiatry. Nurses are necessary to make a hospital run. Podiatrists are not. Podiatrists historically only function in outpatient domains.

Most of the services we provide are rather redundant and it could be covered by other specialties but they really just don't want to do it. It's painful to admit but its true. This is why our growth has been rather stunted. Society doesn't really value us. MD/DO orthopedics certainly do not. Other MD/DO specialties do because we are more "available" and easier to do deal with then most orthopedists.

Majority of MD/DO acknowledge that nurses are NEEDED to make a hospital run and function. Nurses know this and its why they have been so successful in lobbying for greater scope of practice (APRN) etc etc etc.

These are the facts.
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They definitely have a ton of lobbying power, but what would happen overnight if all podiatrists stop showing up to work? Would hospitals cripple to keep up with all the DFU's, foot trauma, emergent infections, etc? You think ortho or gen surg or plastics could keep up with that? I don't know. In residency we would have a TON of inpatient population that required admission for DFU's alone. Would they approve NP's to do surgery for amps? I admit, we can be replaced, but at what cost to the hospitals? Imagine a hospital losing profit from it's total knees / hips cases purely because those orthos are now dealing with the add on TMA's that need to get done. Makes you wonder..
 
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zircushio said:
They definitely have a ton of lobbying power, but what would happen overnight if all podiatrists stop showing up to work? Would hospitals cripple to keep up with all the DFU's, foot trauma, emergent infections, etc? You think ortho or gen surg or plastics could keep up with that? I don't know. In residency we would have a TON of inpatient population that required admission for DFU's alone. Would they approve NP's to do surgery for amps? I admit, we can be replaced, but at what cost to the hospitals? Imagine a hospital losing profit from it's total knees / hips cases purely because those orthos are now dealing with the add on TMA's that need to get done. Makes you wonder..
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These other specialties would complain....a lot. But its within their scope of practice therefore they would be responsible for it. Would patient's have as good outcomes? Probably not. But again podiatrists are not needed to cover these pathologies.
 
CutsWithFury said:
I should have been a nurse. I could have done travel nursing getting 1.5x my salary and having my housing paid for. Live in every nice city in the country and crush it on tinder. Then when I got tired of that I could be an APRN and get better scope of practice than podiatry. Maybe be nurse anesthesia and then make more money than 95% of the podiatry profession.
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Tinder? We’ve moved on and we’re on hinge now. But yeah fair point. I’d rather clean up **** for 12 hours 3x a week making $5,000 a week and then hooking up with random chicks in San Diego than the bull**** I do now. We got screwed being podiatrists. No doubt
 
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ToeFather said:
Tinder? We’ve moved on and we’re on hinge now. But yeah fair point. I’d rather clean up **** for 12 hours 3x a week making $5,000 a week and then hooking up with random chicks in San Diego than the bull**** I do now. We got screwed being podiatrists. No doubt
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Tinder was hot when I was in residency. It's how met my wife...ultimately. But I had fun before that.
 
zircushio said:
You and me both pal. I know so many RN's that paid off all their debts, bought a house or two, trying to suck up as many travel contracts as they could. Some making 4-6k a week, with housing paid for. Those higher paying ones are in the middle of nowhere.

That being said, there are 3.8 million nurses nationwide versus ~18,000 podiatrists in the United States. Probably half of those pods are doing surgery which would make it more like 10k surgical trained pods (my guess). How is there such a MASSIVE demand for nurses that see 6 patients a shift versus the 20+ patients pods see per day that can justify hospitals paying more than ~250,000$/year in travel contracts per nurse? I don't get it. And don't get me wrong, I believe all healthcare workers should get a massive pay raise, but it kind of breaks my heart to see that we studied for so long and went through so many hoops to see such abysmal job opportunities and salaries given our relatively lower numbers per square mile. Couple this with more benefits like Perkins loans can be forgiven for nurses and it makes me really scratch my head as to what we are doing and where our leadership is.

If there was a DPM -> RN fast-track (or better, DPM -> RN -> CRNA), I bet some of us would take it. No surgical responsibility, better pay, more time off, loan forgiveness (Perkins + likely you'll be in a PSLF environment as opposed to being in a PP/MSG for full loan forgiveness in less than 10 years) --- begs the question what is our ROI on podiatry?

Someone should write an article on that. "ROI in healthcare positions - average years to break even in podiatry".
Click to expand...
There was an article not long ago stating fellowships yielded greater long term income from a fairly fresh fellow….. 😂 it’s a joke it was published.
 
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wakaflocka88 said:
There was an article not long ago stating fellowships yielded greater long term income from a fairly fresh fellow….. 😂 it’s a joke it was published.
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Oh Calvin. He's in his own little world.

How come I just got a nice new hospital job in one of the better hospital systems in the midwest and I am not fellowship trained?
 
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CutsWithFury said:
Oh Calvin. He's in his own little world.

How come I just got a nice new hospital job in one of the better hospital systems in the midwest and I am not fellowship trained?
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Because you’re good looking, only attractive people get those jobs
 
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CutsWithFury said:
Oh Calvin. He's in his own little world.

How come I just got a nice new hospital job in one of the better hospital systems in the midwest and I am not fellowship trained?
Click to expand...

Just like how pods try to gatekeep surgeries with ABFAS, I guarantee you that fellows at hospital systems will try to convince management that they should only hire fellows. Mark my words, set a reminder for 10 years.
 
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Pronation said:
Just like how pods try to gatekeep surgeries with ABFAS, I guarantee you that fellows at hospital systems will try to convince management that they should only hire fellows. Mark my words, set a reminder for 10 years.
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No way. Unfortunately experience trumps all. If you have several years of experience with a hospital you are better on paper than a freshly minted fellowship trained DPM. I just got a job at a hospital with fellowship trained DPM already on staff. I had made my case to administration and they were sold on my idea.
 
It's not entirely untrue that fellowship trained pods can make more, many of these new grads start consulting on day 1 and companies eat it up.
Drug/medical device company payments for 2021 are now public. Very revealing to see how much some of the big-name folks make (payments for a certain Lapidus product were especially entertaining to see).

Home | Open Payments Data - CMS

openpaymentsdata.cms.gov openpaymentsdata.cms.gov
 
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PatchAdamsFan said:
It's not entirely untrue that fellowship trained pods can make more, many of these new grads start consulting on day 1 and companies eat it up.
Drug/medical device company payments for 2021 are now public. Very revealing to see how much some of the big-name folks make (payments for a certain Lapidus product were especially entertaining to see).

Home | Open Payments Data - CMS

openpaymentsdata.cms.gov openpaymentsdata.cms.gov
Click to expand...
Fellowship training opens the consultant door for sure. Not by the fellows own exploits but because of who they are associated with. That is one benefit of fellowship training.
 
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PatchAdamsFan said:
It's not entirely untrue that fellowship trained pods can make more, many of these new grads start consulting on day 1 and companies eat it up.
Drug/medical device company payments for 2021 are now public. Very revealing to see how much some of the big-name folks make (payments for a certain Lapidus product were especially entertaining to see).

Home | Open Payments Data - CMS

openpaymentsdata.cms.gov openpaymentsdata.cms.gov
Click to expand...
Look up Chris Hyer's annual consultant fees. My God. He doesn't even need to work.
 
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zircushio said:
You and me both pal. I know so many RN's that paid off all their debts, bought a house or two, trying to suck up as many travel contracts as they could. Some making 4-6k a week, with housing paid for. Those higher paying ones are in the middle of nowhere.

That being said, there are 3.8 million nurses nationwide versus ~18,000 podiatrists in the United States. Probably half of those pods are doing surgery which would make it more like 10k surgical trained pods (my guess). How is there such a MASSIVE demand for nurses that see 6 patients a shift versus the 20+ patients pods see per day that can justify hospitals paying more than ~250,000$/year in travel contracts per nurse? I don't get it. And don't get me wrong, I believe all healthcare workers should get a massive pay raise, but it kind of breaks my heart to see that we studied for so long and went through so many hoops to see such abysmal job opportunities and salaries given our relatively lower numbers per square mile. Couple this with more benefits like Perkins loans can be forgiven for nurses and it makes me really scratch my head as to what we are doing and where our leadership is.

If there was a DPM -> RN fast-track (or better, DPM -> RN -> CRNA), I bet some of us would take it. No surgical responsibility, better pay, more time off, loan forgiveness (Perkins + likely you'll be in a PSLF environment as opposed to being in a PP/MSG for full loan forgiveness in less than 10 years) --- begs the question what is our ROI on podiatry?

Someone should write an article on that. "ROI in healthcare positions - average years to break even in podiatry".
Click to expand...
I would do a DPM to CRNA program. 👀
 
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CutsWithFury said:
I agree its completed screwed up. Especially since the location made a lot of sense for me and my family. I was informed in February I had the job. Then I put in my salary requests with the chief of surgery who I spoke at least 2-3 times on the phone and conversed with via e-mail. I essentially told him if they are looking to hire their first surgical podiatrist then the top of end of the pay scale needs to happen. They wanted me to start a residency program as well. I really think admin there is just super cheap and wanted me to be a surgical podiatrist on a general podiatrist pay scale which would have never worked. So rather than make a decision they cancelled the job or basically put it on the backburner. I am glad I did not plan my life around this decision.
Click to expand...

This happened to one of my residents 2-3 years ago. She completed onboarding, lab work, background check, and had an offer without the salary. Months later, the position was cancelled screwing her over and got her offer rescinded. Later on the position was reposted and that VA ended hiring one of their residents.
 
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JewOnThis said:
This happened to one of my residents 2-3 years ago. She completed onboarding, lab work, background check, and had an offer without the salary. Months later, the position was cancelled screwing her over and got her offer rescinded. Later on the position was reposted and that VA ended hiring one of their residents.
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Yeah the VA I’m talking about was in Southern California and it appears a lot of the california VAs are equally dysfunctional and disorganized. It’s sad. Then they complain that they are losing their podiatry patients to local podiatrists. Just very bad admin running these facilities.
 
CutsWithFury said:
The department is really struggling and they lose a lot of VA patients to community podiatris
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CutsWithFury said:
Then they complain that they are losing their podiatry patients to local podiatrists.
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This is good news to any PP owner. Not just podiatry but any medical speciality. Not just the VA but even hospitals cannot handle all the patients in the community that's why private practice will continue to thrive and will never go away. Hospital even compete with private practice in hiring and recruiting doctors. PP gives more autonomy and also a higher income even in Podiatry PP (with a good contract and good patient flow)
 
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619 said:
This is good news to any PP owner. Not just podiatry but any medical speciality. Not just the VA but even hospitals cannot handle all the patients in the community that's why private practice will continue to thrive and will never go away. Hospital even compete with private practice in hiring and recruiting doctors. PP gives more autonomy and also a higher income even in Podiatry PP (with a good contract and good patient flow)
Click to expand...

This might be true but PP owners have large start up costs, have to pay for staffing and billers. Then they get hustled by insurance companies.

The hospitals are collecting more money from insurance companies for their employed podiatrists work compared to private practice podiatry.

Some hospitals are billing out for services done by their podiatrists that get reimbursed as high as if they were foot and ankle orthopedists.
 
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CutsWithFury said:
This might be true but PP owners have large start up costs, have to pay for staffing and billers. Then they get hustled by insurance companies.

The hospitals are collecting more money from insurance companies for their employed podiatrists work compared to private practice podiatry.

Some hospitals are billing out for services done by their podiatrists that get reimbursed as high as if they were foot and ankle orthopedists.
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All true however this is where business acumen comes in and every PP is going to be run differently. Keep cost low and you reap the rewards.

CutsWithFury said:
The hospitals are collecting more money from insurance companies for their employed podiatrists work compared to private practice podiatry.
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I own my practice and joined an IPA with the hospital group and get paid the same in reimbursement as the hospital employed docs. Obviously not every practice can and will do that.
 
619 said:
I own my practice and joined an IPA with the hospital group and get paid the same in reimbursement as the hospital employed docs. Obviously not every practice can and will do that.
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99.9999999999% of private podiatry practices don’t have this dynamic.
 
619 said:
This is good news to any PP owner. Not just podiatry but any medical speciality. Not just the VA but even hospitals cannot handle all the patients in the community that's why private practice will continue to thrive and will never go away. Hospital even compete with private practice in hiring and recruiting doctors. PP gives more autonomy and also a higher income even in Podiatry PP (with a good contract and good patient flow)
Click to expand...

You’re in PP right? I disagree about the higher income as a PP owner. Clearing 400k+ at a hospital isn’t that difficult and doesn’t require peddling all the cash pay podiatry garbage and other nonsense.
 
Pronation said:
You’re in PP right? I disagree about the higher income as a PP owner. Clearing 400k+ at a hospital isn’t that difficult and doesn’t require peddling all the cash pay podiatry garbage and other nonsense.
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Yes, opened my own practice. I joined the IPA at my hospital and the reimbursement is crazy. I get paid almost the same as medicare bunion surgery for an ingrown toenail. The reimbursement for DME is out of this world. I also easily take home 400k plus and this after I have taken all the business deductions under the sun and no stone is left unturned. Oh and I only pay taxes on about 120k (average pod salary) and take the rest as distribution tax free. I am hoping to buy an office building in the future and will be paying myself rent. The opportunities are endless as an owner compared to an employee.

To answer your last question, I only peddle pre-fab inserts and anti-fungal nail gel lol
 
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619 said:
Yes, opened my own practice. I joined the IPA at my hospital and the reimbursement is crazy. I get paid almost the same as medicare bunion surgery for an ingrown toenail. The reimbursement for DME is out of this world. I also easily take home 400k plus and this after I have taken all the business deductions under the sun and no stone is left unturned. Oh and I only pay taxes on about 120k (average pod salary) and take the rest as distribution tax free. I am hoping to buy an office building in the future and will be paying myself rent. The opportunities are endless as an owner compared to an employee.

To answer your last question, I only peddle pre-fab inserts and anti-fungal nail gel lol
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Sounds like a dream.


Hell, I would never go back to PP. I don’t know anyone dumb enough to do so.
 
CutsWithFury said:
It is a dream. 99.999999% of private practices are not like this.
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It’s SDN man. I don’t believe half the crap I read especially the salary part. I know a ton of people in PP, there are very few people nowadays making above 250k+ when all said and done.
 
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JewOnThis said:
It’s SDN man. I don’t believe half the crap I read especially the salary part. I know a ton of people in PP, there are very few people nowadays making above 250k+ when all said and done.
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You're probably (definitely) not wrong. Devils advocate, of pods I talk to regularly only 2 are still in PP. Both started as an associate and are in "buy in" period. Both are in that 250-300k range and both made ~200 year 1.
 
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Given that the payscale at the VA is so formulaic, has anyone had any success with starting salary negotiation? I know CutsWithFury mentioned that he tried but has anyone received an offer from the VA (or IHS I guess) where they offered X amount and you were able to successfully negotiate a higher starting salary? If so, by how much?
 
SouthPod7 said:
Given that the payscale at the VA is so formulaic, has anyone had any success with starting salary negotiation? I know CutsWithFury mentioned that he tried but has anyone received an offer from the VA (or IHS I guess) where they offered X amount and you were able to successfully negotiate a higher starting salary? If so, by how much?
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Took a month for them to even give me the salary offer, after I had already completed the on boarding, background check, physical, drug testing, etc etc. I wasn't gonna try to negotiate the salary at that point, possibly waiting another month or longer. My time crunch is I've gotta get started before that PSLF waiver expires October 31st--difference between taking 10 years to have loans forgiven vs 1 year.

Anecdotally, it seems you can negotiate the start date, but not the start salary anyways. They gave me a range of dates going all the way into December.
 
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Scrantonicity said:
Took a month for them to even give me the salary offer, after I had already completed the on boarding, background check, physical, drug testing, etc etc. I wasn't gonna try to negotiate the salary at that point, possibly waiting another month or longer. My time crunch is I've gotta get started before that PSLF waiver expires October 31st--difference between taking 10 years to have loans forgiven vs 1 year.

Anecdotally, it seems you can negotiate the start date, but not the start salary anyways. They gave me a range of dates going all the way into December.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the response.

I always figured that the VA wouldn't bother trying to negotiate the salary since there are always 40+ applicants vying for the same spot.
 
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SouthPod7 said:
Appreciate the response.

I always figured that the VA wouldn't bother trying to negotiate the salary since there are always 40+ applicants vying for the same spot.
Click to expand...
I think that's the case...and also like you said earlier it's such a formulaic process they use to decide salary--it feels like you would be trying to argue with a faceless behemoth of an institution to try to change the offer in any big way. I've heard of people who tried, with very little success (if any).
 
Negotiating salary with a VA hospital is solely dependent on the admin and the chief of surgery. If you can get the chief of surgery to vouch for you then that’s a good start but the admin control everything.

The better the quality of the VA hospital the better the chance you have wiggle room to negotiate.

Good luck at crappier disorganized VA hospitals. It’s not happening
 
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