Pentagon mulls special pay boost to fix health care personnel shortage

Pentagon officials said they will look to increase pay for health care workers, especially nurses, to boost hiring after a watchdog report detailed widespread understaffing at military hospitals and clinics during the pandemic.

Ashish Vazirani, acting Under Secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said in a May 28 report that other federal agencies paid entry-level nurses “substantially more,” and that his office is working in conjunction with others to add and update special salary rates to attract and retain employees at medical facilities. It’s using the Department of Veterans Affairs as a model.

“The agency is fully engaged and postured to continue to maintain or achieve pay parity with the VA and receive competitive special salary rates that align with current market pay,” the office said in its response to the inspector general report.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which at its height saw a 150,000 weekly hospitalization rate in the U.S., severely disrupted the federal health care sector. The Bureau of Prisons, Veterans Health Administration and Medicare- and Medicaid-operated nursing homes were understaffed during the pandemic, federal data shows.