Notice2023-24893
Annual Pay Ranges for Physicians, Dentists and Podiatrists of the Veterans Health Administration
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
November 13, 2023
Issuing agencies
Veterans Affairs Department
Abstract
VA is hereby giving notice of annual pay ranges, which is the sum of the base pay rate and market pay for VHA physicians, dentists and podiatrists as prescribed by the Secretary for Department-wide applicability. These annual pay ranges are intended to enhance the flexibility of the Department to recruit, develop and retain the most highly qualified providers to serve the Nation's Veterans and maintain a standard of excellence in the VA health care system.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 217 (Monday, November 13, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 217 (Monday, November 13, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77671-77673]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-24893]
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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Annual Pay Ranges for Physicians, Dentists and Podiatrists of the
Veterans Health Administration
AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: VA is hereby giving notice of annual pay ranges, which is the
sum of the base pay rate and market pay for VHA physicians, dentists
and podiatrists as prescribed by the Secretary for Department-wide
applicability. These annual pay ranges are intended to enhance the
flexibility of the Department to recruit, develop and retain the most
highly qualified providers to serve the Nation's Veterans and maintain
a standard of excellence in the VA health care system.
DATES: Annual pay ranges are applicable on January 14, 2024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Leah Brady, Supervisory Human
Resources (HR) Specialist, Human Resources Center of Expertise, VHA
Workforce Management and Consulting (10A2A), Department of Veterans
Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20420, 842-288-7894.
This is not a toll-free number.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under 38 U.S.C. 7431(e)(1)(A), not less
often than once every 2 years, the Secretary must prescribe for
Department-wide applicability the minimum and maximum amounts of annual
pay that may be paid to VHA physicians, dentists and podiatrists. 38
U.S.C. 7431(e)(1)(B) allows the Secretary to prescribe separate minimum
and maximum amounts of annual pay for a specialty or assignment.
Pursuant to 38 U.S.C. 7431(e)(1)(C), amounts prescribed under section
7431(e) shall be published in the Federal Register and shall not take
effect until at least 60 days after the date of publication.
In addition, under 38 U.S.C. 7431(e)(4), the total amount of
compensation paid to a physician, dentist or podiatrist under title 38
of the United States Code cannot exceed, in any year, the amount of
annual compensation (excluding expenses) of the President. For the
purposes of section 7431(e)(4), ``the total amount of compensation''
includes base pay, market pay, performance pay, and fee basis earnings,
but excludes recruitment, relocation, retention incentives,\1\ awards
for performance and special contributions from total compensation
calculations.
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\1\ In accordance with title IX, section 906 of the ``Sergeant
First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address
Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022'' (Pub. L. 117-168, dated
August 10, 2022), recruitment, relocation and retention incentives,
along with performance awards, shall not be considered in
calculating the limitation under 38 U.S.C. 7431(e)(4).
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Background
The ``Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel
Enhancement Act of 2004'' (Pub. L. 108-445) was signed by the President
on December 3, 2004.
[[Page 77672]]
The law's major provisions established a new pay system for VHA
physicians and dentists consisting of base pay, market pay and
performance pay. These three components create a system of pay that is
driven by both market indicators and employee performance, while
recognizing employee tenure in VHA. While the base pay component is set
by statute, market pay is intended to reflect the recruitment and
retention needs for the specialty or assignment of a particular
physician or dentist at a facility. Further, performance pay is
intended to recognize the achievement of specific goals and performance
objectives prescribed annually.
On April 8, 2019, the President signed Public Law 116-12, which
amended 38 U.S.C. 7431 to include podiatrists within the physician and
dentist pay system, authorizing podiatrists to receive base pay, market
pay and performance pay. With the amendment, podiatrists are also
subject to the same limitations and requirements as physicians and
dentists under section 7431.
VA will consolidate pay table 1 and 2, resulting in the elimination
of a pay table. Changes to the minimum and maximum amounts for the
revised pay tables 1 and 2 have been made. The maximum amount for the
former pay table 3 (now pay table 2) remains unchanged since the 2016
publication in the Federal Register. Pay tables 1 and 2 will cover the
clinical specialties, with pay tables 3 and 4 covering the executive
assignments.
Discussion
VA identified and utilized salary survey data sources which most
closely represent VA comparability in the areas of practice setting,
employment environment and hospital/health care systems. The
Association of American Medical Colleges, Sullivan Cotter and
Associates, Medical Group Management Association, Korn Ferry Healthcare
National and Executive Report, Mercer Integrated Health Networks and
the Survey of Dental Practice published by the American Dental
Association were collectively utilized as benchmarks to prescribe
annual pay ranges across the scope of assignments/specialties within
the Department. While aggregating the data, a preponderance of weight
was given to those surveys which most directly resembled the
environment of the Department.
VA continued the practice of grouping specialties into consolidated
pay ranges to accommodate the more than 40 specialties that currently
exist in the VA system. This allows VA to use multiple salary survey
data sources to minimize disparities and aberrations that may surface
from data involving smaller samples that change from year to year.
Aggregating multiple survey sources into like groupings results in
greater confidence that the average compensation reported is truly
representative. The aggregation of data provides for a large enough
sample size to provide maximum flexibility for pay setting for VHA
physicians, dentists and podiatrists.
In developing the annual pay ranges, distinctive principles were
factored into the compensation analysis of the data. The first
principle is to ensure that the minimum and maximum salaries are at a
level that accommodates special employment situations from fellowships
and medical research career development awards to Nobel Laureates;
high-cost areas; and internationally renowned clinicians. The second
principle provides ranges large enough to accommodate career
progression, geographic differences, sub-specialization and other
special factors.
Clinical specialties were reviewed against available, relevant
private sector data. The specialties are grouped into two (formerly
three) clinical pay ranges that reflect comparable complexity in
salary, recruitment and retention considerations. The Steering
Committee recommendations included consolidating the former pay tables
1 and 2, designating two clinical pay ranges (pay tables 1 and 2) for
the varying clinical specialties and designating pay tables 3 and 4 for
executive assignments. The Steering Committee also made recommendations
to add new and realign existing specialties to different clinical pay
ranges, as well as changes to the minimum and maximum pay ranges.
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Tier level Minimum Maximum
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Pay Table 1--Clinical Specialty
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Tier 1............................................ $115,587 $300,000
Tier 2............................................ 145,000 320,000
Tier 3............................................ 165,000 336,000
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Pay Table 1--Covered Clinical Specialties
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Allergy and Immunology, Endocrinology, Endodontics, Family Medicine,
General Practice--Dentistry, Geriatrics, Health Informatics,
Hospitalist, Infectious Diseases, Internal Medicine, Neurology,
Nocturnist, Palliative Care, Periodontics, Physical Medicine &
Rehabilitation/Spinal Cord Injury, Podiatry (General), Preventive
Medicine, Primary Care, Prosthodontics, Psychiatry, Rheumatology, Sleep
Medicine, All other specialties or assignments.........................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Pay Table 2--Clinical Specialty
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Tier level Minimum Maximum
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tier 1............................................ $115,587 $400,000
Tier 2............................................ 200,000 400,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pay Table 2--Covered Clinical Specialties
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Anatomic Pathology, Anesthesiology, Cardiology (Invasive/Non-
Interventional), Cardiology (Non-Invasive), Cardio-Thoracic Surgery,
Critical Care, Dermatology, Dermatology (Mohs), Emergency Medicine,
Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Gynecology, Hematology--Oncology,
Interventional Cardiology, Interventional Radiology, Nephrology,
Neurosurgery, Nuclear Medicine, Ophthalmology, Oral Surgery, Orthopedic
Surgery, Otolaryngology, Pain Management (Interventional & Non-
Operating Room Anesthesiology), Pain Management (PM&R), Pathology,
Plastic Surgery, Podiatry (Surgery-Forefoot, Rearfoot/Ankle, Advanced
Rearfoot/Ankle), Pulmonary, Radiology (Diagnostic), Radiation Oncology,
Urology, Vascular Surgery..............................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pay Table 3--Chief Medical Officer Assignments
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Tier level Minimum Maximum
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Tier 1............................................ $150,000 $400,000
Tier 2............................................ 147,000 375,000
Tier 3............................................ 145,000 350,000
Tier 4............................................ 140,000 325,000
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Pay Table 3--Covered Assignments
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The recommendation is to decouple VHA Chiefs of Staff and Network Chief
Medical Officers Tier assignments for Chiefs of Staff from their
complexity levels to address recruitment and retention issues. By
decoupling the provider from their facility, this allows individual
qualifications to be acknowledged......................................
Tier 1--Network Chief Medical Officer...................................
Tier 2--Chief of Staff..................................................
Tier 3--Deputy Network Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff..
Tier 4--Associate Chief of Staff........................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pay Table 4--Executive Assignments
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No discussions took place regarding pay table 4 (formerly pay table 5)
other than the pay table number changing due to combining of other pay
tables.................................................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tier level Minimum Maximum
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tier 1............................................ $145,000 $310,000
Tier 2............................................ 145,000 295,000
Tier 3............................................ 145,000 285,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 77673]]
Pay Table 4--Covered Assignments
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Deputy Under Secretary for Health; Assistant Under Secretaries for
Health; Associate Deputy Under Secretary for Health; Assistant Deputy
Under Secretary for Health; Chief Officers (VHA Central Office (CO));
Network Directors; Medical Center Directors; Executive Directors (VHA
CO); Deputy to the Assistant Under Secretaries for Health; Chief
Consultants (VHA CO); Deputy Chief Officers (VHA CO); Deputy Network
Directors; Deputy Medical Center Directors; Deputy Chief Consultants
(VHA CO); Deputy to the Executive Directors (VHA CO); VHA CO
physicians, dentists or podiatrists (non-Senior Executive Service
equivalents) with an administrative/executive role for more than 50% of
their full-time equivalent.............................................
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Signing Authority
Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, approved and signed
this document on October 24, 2023, and authorized the undersigned to
sign and submit the document to the Office of the Federal Register for
publication electronically as an official document of the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
Luvenia Potts,
Regulation Development Coordinator, Office of Regulation Policy &
Management, Office of General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2023-24893 Filed 11-9-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8320-01-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on November 13, 2023.
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