Question about the military... ( 1

[mommax3]

Carol,



I will try to answer your questions (those that I know the answers to, anyway!) and hopefully the others will chime in too.



My husband just finished an OB/GYN residency at Wilford Hall (San Antonio) a year ago. The Air Force paid for his med school, and then he was chosen to do a military residency. We owed four years when he finished residency, now we are down to three .



Whether or not you go overseas has a lot to do with how much time you owe, from what I have heard and observed. It also depends (of course) on the needs of the branch of service that you are in. In our case, owing four years, we would have had to lobby pretty hard to go overseas and we didn't really want to, so we were assigned to a base in north Texas. People who owe more time are more likely to go overseas at some point for 3 years.



We have never lived on base, but my understanding of that is that you are treated just like any other person of your rank in regards to housing -- if there is a waiting list, you will have to wait your turn.



You will make more money in a military residency vs. a civilian one, especially since your husband will come in as a major. There is another post in this forum by one of the two Jennifers that explains more about the disparity between civilian and military pay once residency is over. I know she is getting ready to move, but her husband is in a radiology program right now, so she would be a really good resource for you.



I don't know anything about schools overseas since we are stateside and will be until we get out, so I can't help you there. We have three boys so I can sympathize with your concerns about education for your girls.



Hope this helps!



Sally

[DCJenn]

Hi there-



Just to through in some more answers- the schools on base/post are a varied as schools everywhere else. DOD schools are dependent on the surrounding area for teachers so, that can factor in to the education. (Shaquille O'neill went to Cole High School on Ft. Sam Houston FYI)



There are lots of home-schooling with military personnel- for a variety of reasons. I think that the bible education is more a part of the home school or religious education through churchs on the posts.



We owe a lot of time and are looking forward to going overseas. They are hard to get straight out of residency though so we'll end up waiting until our second tour. Hawaii is a juicy assignment for Officers so I wouldn't worry about being sent there if you don't want to go. (At least for the Army it is). As for livingon the economy- I think it depends on where you are stationed. Some places more actively encourage you to live in quarters- others don't have the space- Ft. Sam doesn't have any quarters for the medical junior officers. 5th Army is also at Ft. Sam and they get priority.



The housing allowance depends also on where you are stationed. We received more when we were in DC because the cost of living is substantially higher than in Texas.



Because your husband is prior service, he would make more than the graduates just starting out. Also, the prior service counts towards retirement. (that's why we're lifers- he was prior service and now has 11 years in- and we still owe the payback of 7!)



Army Jenn

Thank You, for the information it has helped.



Carol

Hi,



I wanted to know when they are finished with the residency program does the pay rate change? Does it still go by a 0-4 or 0-8 major pay? I noticed they have bonus for physicians but could'nt find a listing for physician pay. I read about the special pay but not sure if they can receive that during training?



Housing pay. Is that only if you live off base and can change depending on where you live? Does it come close to the cost of rent where ever you end up?



Thanks,

Carol

I wanted to know when they are finished with the residency program does the pay rate change? Does it still go by a 0-4 or 0-8 major pay? I noticed they have bonus for physicians but could'nt find a listing for physician pay. I read about the special pay but not sure if they can receive that during training?



This is what I know off the top of my head about pay: A physician who is also an active duty officer recieves the following: (1) basic pay according to rank and years active duty as a commissioned officer, (2)food allowance (clothing allowance also if stationed at a base hospital), (3)"special" medical officer pay - based upon where the officer is in training OR if the officer is finished and board certified according to number of years after that fact, (3)housing allowance - IF the officer lives off base (housing allowance is based upon the zip code of where the officer WORKS - therefore our housing allowance is unusually high for the military since my husband will be working in one of the most expensive zips in the US).



There is no special "physician basic pay". Instead the military (the Air Force, at least) pays the physician the same as all other commissioned officers of similar rank and years in service and tacks on a special "physician bonus pay" that is often given in one lump sum once a year for finished physicians (parceled out over the year for residents). Residents DO receive the special pay for medical officers. I think that should be listed among the charts I linked. I'll check to be sure....



Housing pay. Is that only if you live off base and can change depending on where you live? Does it come close to the cost of rent where ever you end up?



You only receive housing pay if you live off base. The housing allowance is calculated according to the zip code in which you work. Therefore, if you are working in a civilian hospital, your pay for housing is calculated according to that civilian hospital's zip code. For expensive areas of the country the pay is considerably more. It *can* come close to the cost of rent where ever you end up. It's one of those up in the air things. You see, most places will not rent a place to you more than a third your gross monthly income. Well, we are in such an expensive area (Boston) that our housing allowance actually is about the same as my husband's basic pay plus medical officer pay! So, even though half of our income theoretically is "housing allowance" we can only spend a third of our income on rent monthly following the rules of renting.





Jennifer

Carol, I'll ask my husband tomorrow (when he gets home arrrgh) about the pay issue. He might know since I may not have answered your question very well....



Jennifer

Thank You, Jennifer.



We have read on a web site how short of radiologist the air force have and about the change in bonus pay. Look at this web sit http://www.rsna.org/publications/rsnane ... usaf-1html. Is any of this accurate about pay and such?



I am trying to figure out a budget for residency if my husband decides to take the military route.



Carol

I'll check the site out as soon as I have more than five minutes free! Thanks for the information - it would be so great if the pay has increased!



Jennifer

[DCJenn]

Hello- I'm back from DC!



The pay for all of them is also based on any years they have in as enlisted as well.



My husbands housing allowance more than covered our rent here in TX, my mortgage payment on the condo in DC (which FYI was a 515 square foot efficiency so it really didn't cost a lot!!) and covers about 2/3 of our mortgage payment now.



I know the Army and the Navy are screaming for radiologists, too. The bonuses they get for physcian pay also increases annually and we get a huge bonus at the end of residency. (Can't wait for that!) They then do everything they can to keep the docs in the service and they usually receive annual bonuses every July1. Also, physicians and some of the other specialty areas are usually included in the pay raises that are targeted by specific congressional budget increases. The pay tables are published annually and can be found in the military newspapers (Army Times, Air Force Times, etc as well as online.



Jenn

[mommax3]

Once your husband is finished with residency, there is a bonus in July that all doctors get (around $10,000 after taxes, if I remember correctly) and in October, there is another bonus. The amount of that one is dependent on specialty and there is a table that tells who gets what somewhere ( I don't have the link right now.) This is on top of your regular pay according to rank and years of active duty.



I think that it is customary for docs without prior service to promote to major six years after they finish med school -- for us that will be next spring. That pay raise is supposed to be pretty nice as well.



One thing about the October bonus -- it obligates you to stay in for the next calendar year, which means in our case, if we took it in the fall of his last year, he would be obligated to remain in until the next October, even though his time is up in June. I think they should just pro-rate it, because this year he worked from July-October with no specialty bonus, and if you added those months to the months he would work during his last year, it would equal out to a year. So for a four year commitment, you only get three years worth of specialty bonuses unless you want to obligate yourself to another 5 months. It stinks!



That's all the knowledge I have on the subject. They keep talking about doubling the OB bonus -- no action on that yet. Military OBs make half the average for civilian OBs, so the bonus would be welcome, but if not -- ONLY THREE MORE YEARS!



Sally

[DCJenn]

Sally-



The bonus and added commitment is so true- but I forget that people don't oowe a lifetime to Uncle Sam like we do! I know that for the pediatricians it has averaged somewhere between 10 and 12,000- depending on years of service.



Whew Hew!!!



Jenn

Thanks for the info. I haven't been too knowledgeable on the medical bonus part of it all.



Sally, I know that according to Jon's contract he had to be promoted to at least major by the time he finished residency (at which point he'd have been active duty five years). But, they just informed him a few days back that he will be promoted to major in October (with only 16 months active duty service under his belt). Is this because they count his time in the reserves (four years during med school) towards that promotion? We were both kind of taken off guard by this but could definitely use the pay increase!



Jennifer

[mommax3]

My husband was in the reserves for four years during med school, too -- so if your husband promotes early, I would guess that it is due to the sweet deal that you guys got. I have not known anyone to promote earlier unless they had prior active duty service before med school -- even the USUHS grads who were active duty during med school haven't promoted earlier, at least in my VAST experience -- meaning the OB residents at Wilford Hall during the last four years or so. Many of the OB people I know (including my husband) received end-of-residency evaluations that contained recommendations for them to be promoted "below the zone" i.e. before they normally would be, but it has never happened to anyone we have known.

Wait, Jenn, did you just say that our hubbies get a big bonus once residency is complete?! My ears just perked way up! Is that their normal yearly "finished doc" bonus you are talking about or is it a bonus just for getting through residency? How MUCH is it? I didn't know about this one!



Jennifer

[DCJenn]

The only peds person promoted during residency has been a guy who has a MD/PhD. Other than that everyone has stayed Captains.



Jenn