U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Indian Health Service: The Federal Health Program for American Indians and Alaska Natives
 Nationwide
Programs
and Initiatives

Promotions

Promotion eligibility to each pay grade—temporary or permanent grade, whichever is higher—is based upon the sum of one’s training and experience (T&E). TRAINING includes 4 years of credit for undergraduate. Therefore, entry-level engineers who have just graduated receive 4 years of Training credit & 0 years of Experience credit. This equals promotion eligibility to the temporary O-2 grade. All entry-level engineers come into the PHS at the O-2 pay grade. EXPERIENCE includes all of one's years of practice as an engineer,whether in the private sector or uniformed services.

Eligibility for promotion to the next pay grade = TRAINING + EXPERIENCE, in years:

Pay Grade          Training & Experience

O-3                      8 years

O-4                      12 years

O-5                      17 years

O-6                      24 years

The promotion board meets once each year. Thus, an officer who becomes eligible for promotion may need to wait several additional months before being considered for promotion, depending upon his or her call-to-duty date and the promotion board’s meeting date.

The age limit for entry into the PHS is <44 years. That is, an individual must be called to duty prior to his or her forty-fourth birthday. Active-duty time in any uniformed service extends that age limit by the amount of active-duty time served. For example, an individual with 3 years of active-duty service in the Armed Forces may enter the PHS prior to his or her 47th birthday. Waivers may be available, if the individual is only slightly beyond the age limit.




Return back to the Commissioned Corps page.

Content on this page may require: Link to MicroSoft Word Plug-in MS Word  Link to Adobe Acrobat Plug-in Acrobat  Link to Corel WordPerfect Plug-in WordPerfect  Link to MicroSoft PowerPoint Plug-in PowerPoint 

usa.gov link   Accessibility · Disclaimer · Website Privacy Policy · Freedom of Information Act · Kid's Page · Contact   This website is accredited by Health On the Net Foundation. Click to verify.

Indian Health Service (HQ) - The Reyes Building, 801 Thompson Avenue, Ste. 400 - Rockville, MD 20852