Assignment Incentive Pay   On September 8, 2008, then Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), ADM Joxel Garcia, approved Commissioned Corps Instruction CC631.02 authorizing the implementation of the Assignment Incentive Pay (AIP) pilot program. The purpose of AIP is to provide an additional incentive that organizations can use to help with recruitment and retention for designated Critical Public Health Assignments (CPHAs). The policy authorized the payment of AIP in amounts not to exceed $3,000 as determined by the program to which the officer is assigned. Approval for payment of AIP required a two-stage process: 1) approval of the billet/assignment which was submitted by the agency; and 2) approval of the officer’s request for AIP for service in an approved billet/assignment. This pilot program was not to exceed 2 years and could be terminated by the ASH at any time. The policy required that the agreements had to be approved by December 31, 2009 and that the AIP pilot program would end on December 31, 2010. In discussions with senior Corps officers and Office of Public Health and Science leadership, the current ASH, Dr. Howard K. Koh, was presented with several options for extending and/or completing the AIP pilot program. After carefully reviewing available information, he decided to make no changes to the AIP pilot program (thus, signing agreements ended on December 31, 2009, and the pilot program ends on December 31, 2010) and looks to the results of an evaluation of the AIP pilot program to make decisions regarding future implementation of AIP for the Corps. Preliminary numbers indicate that 89.3 percent of the 1,907 billet applications were approved and 93.4 percent of the 241 requests for contracts were approved. The Office of Commissioned Corps Force Management, in collaboration with the Office of the Surgeon General and the Transformation Officers, will be conducting a formal evaluation of the AIP pilot program to determine its effectiveness in recruiting and retaining highly qualified candidates to serve in CPHAs. The evaluation will cover matters including the efficiency with which requests were processed and analyze reasons certain Operating Division/Staff Divisions and non-HHS organizations opted out of this pilot program. The Corps anticipates that the evaluation will take at least 9 months to complete once the contract is awarded Officers should direct specific questions regarding AIP to their respective Commissioned Corps Liaisons. Additional information will be published in the Commissioned Corps Bulletin as it becomes available.     Current Issue Front Page