Veterans Administration employment

[Tim]

“26 pay periods x80 hours per period = 2080 hours a year, 2080/12 = 167 hrs a month. ”

This is standard available hours to account for per year.
I am “assuming” Vacations, holidays, PTO get paid. Curious, does VA allow a 3.5 day work week?
(3x12)+4= 40 or hit 80 and you are done for the 2 weeks?
That would be paradise!

[Anne]

faust wrote:

When I was in residency I heard about a couple of other financial perks from the attendings there (not sure if really true or just scuttlebutt) – any truth to these?

-no need for malpractice/liability insurance. I heard that if a patient sues a VA provider they are effectively suing the federal government so the case will be taken up by government counsel – anyway that can be significant savings for some specialties.

-nobody cares (and no financial incentive) if you’re board certified, so the attendings I had never worried about paying for recert exams/annual fees/board prep etc. It did mean some of the attendings I had had knowledge that was 30 years obsolete but oh well….

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Malpractice is covered by the federal tort claims act.  But for most employed positions, at least in my field, it is covered by the employer anyway.  So I'm not sure how huge of a deal that is.  I guess for huge lawsuits that could potentially exceed the employer's coverage--but based on prior discussions on here that seems pretty rare anyway.

Nowadays I think the attitude towards board certification has changed.  I think most VA job postings say something to the effect of "BC/BE eligible strongly desired" or something to that effect.   So it's not a mandate but it would hurt you in the hiring process.  There is a small bump in pay for BC--it pretty much covers the cost of maintaining certification but not much more.  I know one person who started working for another VA while board eligible right out of residency, intending to become board certified but had severe test taking anxiety and put off written boards for a while, finally took them and passed but froze up with oral boards and hasn't been able to pass.  And the window to achieve BC is running out.  I don't think he will be removed from his current position if he doesn't pass his boards, but he doesn't want to stay at that location forever and will have a very hard time moving without the BC at this point.  So I really wouldn't advise anyone to not keep up their BC unless they are at the tail end of their career and fully ready to pull the eject cord.

[wideopenspaces]

StarTrekDoc wrote:

wideopenspaces wrote:

I don’t believe there is really any room to negotiate, as far as I know. I just started at the VA and I *am* getting some kind of sign on/retention/student loan repayment – 140k over 4 years. In my area it’s one of the higher paying places ( psychiatry).

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EDRP ?   –  That still alive and kicking?  — That’s one program that actually worked from Day 1 and PSLF should have modelled after that.  I used it and paid off my loans —  remember have to ASK for it.  They conveniently don’t mention it.

Most a system can do is max you out at Grade/Step, then add onto local for recruit/retention.   This latter is definitely negotiable at the Chief Of Staff level.  Same for moving/relocation expenses which can be quite generous oneoff so don’t be afraid to ask for the sun on that — like 6months rental storage of personal furniture while searching for new home is not an out of reach ask.

 

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I don't think it's edrp. I think it's more just recruitment incentive. My friends use it for student loan payoff but luckily I don't have student loans anymore and I can just invest it :-)

[Tuxedo]

faust wrote:

-nobody cares (and no financial incentive) if you’re board certified, so the attendings I had never worried about paying for recert exams/annual fees/board prep etc. It did mean some of the attendings I had had knowledge that was 30 years obsolete but oh well….

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The lack of a board cert requirement and "any state license" goes rule attracts some questionable to downright bad physicians.

Want to work in NY but can't get a NY license?  Work for the gov't.

Want to work as a doctor but never completed a residency?  Work for the gov't.

And they'll never leave because they have no other option.  They are otherwise unemployable.  For a reason.

[StarTrekDoc]

Tuxedo wrote:

Want to work in NY but can’t get a NY license?  Work for the gov’t.

Want to work as a doctor but never completed a residency?  Work for the gov’t.

And they’ll never leave because they have no other option.  They are otherwise unemployable.  For a reason.

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The vetting process is actually a bit more rigorous than what I had to do for UC.

Feds don't need State licensing approval to practice.  I'm all for not needing to pay even more state grubby hands.

And saying that -- the State boards are that much better in policing licenses, right?

Don't make the VA out to be some safe haven harboring quacks.

[WorkingToFish]

Using fedsmart database as a resource, I looked up several salaries of the specialists I know that work at my local VA but only part-time. The salaries they are pulling for part-time work is impressive. It looks as though most VA dermatologists around the US are making between 250-320k per year. Not sure if these are full-time positions, however. Anybody know if there are any part-time VA derms making these kind of numbers?

[WorkingToFish]

Furthermore, a specialist I knew at the VA was pulling about 280k per year but only seeing 15 patients a day over a 5-day work week. I could easily see the same 75 patients in three days. Would the VA pay the same rate since I would be seeing the same number of patients over a shorter period of time? Or does it just not work like that with government positions?

[StarTrekDoc]

Salaried means just that. There's no productivity base to it. You can certainly query for a 1099 position and negotiate rvu based pay. We did that to a hire we tried out in a cboc when we first started out a new area.

[WorkingToFish]

As a VA employee I understand that the employer 401k equivalent is the TSP, correct?

Can you still have a traditional IRA and do the backdoor Roth IRA conversion as a VA employee?

[Anne]

TSP is a 401k equivalent. It will not block you from doing backdoor Roth. However having a traditional IRA will. If you have a traditional IRA you can roll it over into your TSP so that you can then do the backdoor Roth conversion moving forward.

[Anne]

You can also choose regular (pretax) contribution to TSP vs Roth contribution to TSP. That is entirely different from Roth IRA.

[JBME]

Does the TSP allow for the mega backdoor Roth?

[StarTrekDoc]

TSP Roth is available.   For TSP funds pre-Roth -- you're stuck.  TSP doesn't allow for in-service withdrawals at all.

 

[Hank]

Generally there is no mega back door Roth with the TSP.

Active duty military deployed to a combat zone are able to put additional tax free dollars into the TSP to max out the full $56,000 annual limit. However unless you’re a VA doc who also is a Guard guy or reservist, this won’t apply to you.

[WorkingToFish]

Are there any VA dermatologists on here that can shed some light on their experience working at the VA?