Some things to think about.
Payback for USU is a long time. A really long time.
If you happen to NOT do a career in the military, and you want to do Reserves (like I am doing), you get your HPSP years back, but USU years do NOT come back until you have already completed 20. I have no idea why - seems rather crazy to me.
It's a long, sordid story. Search for DOPMA 1981 USUHS.
Executive summary: the rules were changed by DOPMA in 1981 to remove constructive service credit for students on active duty and in uniform at USUHS starting in 1985. Of course, some people from the class of 1986 claimed that they were misinformed, so the three services' military boards granted them the years back without Congressional approval.
The entire reason for the USUHS clauses of DOPMA always seemed to me to screw doctors into staying in longer...20 years after graduation, rather than 16.
I never claimed that I was informed incorrectly. The whole thing was briefed to us very clearly during our interview day at USUHS. At that time, of course, I assumed I would be in the Air Force for life...
An exhaustive legal and financial analysis is here if you have time:
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a376958.pdf
...from which I quote:
"Defense Officer Personnel Management Act.
The Act eliminated constructive service credit for pay purposes for students enrolled in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) and the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) after September 14, 1981. Before the Act was implemented, medical officers who graduated from USUHS and HPSP received 4 years of constructive service credit for training...The USUHS and HPSP classes that graduated in 1985 and 1986 were the first to be affected by the Act. The classes of 1982 through 1984 entered on active duty before the Act was implemented; therefore, they received 4 years of constructive service credit for training.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACT
The Boards for the Correction of Military and Naval Records used inappropriate decisionmaking criteria and administrative procedures in awarding constructive service credit to 1985 and 1986 graduates of the USUHS and HPSP. The awards have already resulted in $12 million in back payments, and could cost the Government as much as $193 million in increased active duty and retirement pay for medical officers. Until procedural changes are implemented, the Boards may continue to use inappropriate decisionmaking criteria and procedures.
In 1984, DoD considered a USUHS-sponsored bill to restore constructive service credit to USUHS and HPSP medical students. DoD did not support the bill because the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) did not endorse it.
The Army and Air Force Boards' decisions to correct the records of HPSP students so that the students could receive constructive service credit for time spent in medical school were unconnected to any legal standard for identifying injustices. When the Army and Air Force Boards granted blanket relief to HPSP students, their decision was not based on a finding that the applicants had presented sufficient, relevant evidence to demonstrate that that injustices had occurred. Instead, the Boards' decisions were based on considerations of equity that ran contrary to Congressional intent as set out in the Act."
It still boggles my mind that the DoD IG report whines on and on about actual and potential payments to doctors in the millions of dollars over 40 years, when DoD
wastes billions of dollars per year
that can't be accounted for.
It's exactly as though they don't care about us.
