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Department of Defense Directive on Special Pays for Health Professions Officers:
What are the Implications for USPHS Commissioned Corps Policies? |
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The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act established new consolidated pay authorities to give the Services increased flexibility in managing special pay. In response to this new authority, the Office of Commissioned Corps Force Management (OCCFM) convened a Compensation Policy Advisory Board (CPAB) to recommend policies related to pay for officers of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (Corps). The CPAB is in a data collecting mode and will be making recommendations once the data has been fully analyzed. Additionally, both the CPAB and the OCCFM personnel have been working closely with the Department of Defense (DoD) to assure that the authorities are implemented in a relatively consistent and coordinated manner.
The law requires that the Departmental Secretary concerned promulgate regulations to implement the new authorities. Therefore, for the Corps, Secretary Sebelius must approve the implementation of the consolidated pays by signing a Commissioned Corps Directive (CCD) before any of these new pay authorities may be implemented. The CCD was drafted and forwarded by the Assistant Secretary for Health to the Secretary for signature. Policies implementing the consolidated pay will be circulated once the CCD is approved by the Secretary. On 23 July 2009, the DoD Military Health System posted Directive Type Memorandum (DTM) 09-009, “Implementation of Special Pay for Health Professions Officers (HPOs).” This DTM only establishes DoD policy and assigns responsibilities to implement special pays for the identified categories. The authorities of the DTM are not applicable to Corps officers. When the Corps’ CCD is approved and signed by the Secretary, OCCFM will post the information on the Commissioned Corps Management Information System Web site and will publish the information in the Commissioned Corps Bulletin. Officers are encouraged to visit the Web site (http://dcp.psc.gov) on a regular basis and are discouraged from contacting the Compensation Branch of the Office of Commissioned Corps Support Services about the pay authorities that are yet to be authorized by Secretary Sebelius. |