Annual Pay Ranges for Physicians, Dentists, and Podiatrists of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), 43261-43262 [2019-17901]
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 161 / Tuesday, August 20, 2019 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Internal Revenue Service
Proposed Collection; Comment
Request for Forms 3520 and 3520–A
Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
Treasury.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with NOTICES
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: The Internal Revenue Service,
as part of its continuing effort to reduce
paperwork and respondent burden,
invites the general public and other
Federal agencies to take this
opportunity to comment on proposed
and/or continuing information
collections, as required by the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The
IRS is soliciting comments concerning
annual return to report transactions
with foreign trusts and receipt of certain
foreign gifts and for annual information
return of a foreign trust with a U.S.
owner.
DATES: Written comments should be
received on or before October 21, 2019
to be assured of consideration.
ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments
to Laurie Brimmer, Internal Revenue
Service, Room 6526, 1111 Constitution
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20224.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for additional information or
copies of the form should be directed to
Christina Leeper, at (737) 800–7737 or
Internal Revenue Service, Room 6526,
1111 Constitution Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20224, or through the
internet, at Christina.E.Leeper@irs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Titles: Form 3520, Annual Return To
Report Transactions With Foreign
Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign
Gifts and Form 3520–A, Annual
Information Return of Foreign Trust
With a U.S. Owner.
OMB Number: 1545–0159.
Form Numbers: Forms 3520 and
3520–A.
Abstract: U.S. persons file Form 3520
to report certain transactions with
foreign trusts, ownership of foreign
trusts under the rules of Internal
Revenue Code sections 671 through 679,
and receipt of certain large gifts or
bequests from certain foreign persons.
Form 3520–A is the annual information
return of a foreign trust with at least one
U.S. owner. The form provides
information about the foreign trust, its
U.S. beneficiaries, and any U.S. person
who is treated as an owner of any
portion of the foreign trust under the
grantor trust rules.
Current Actions: There were minor
changes to the form, however, the
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:49 Aug 19, 2019
Jkt 247001
increase in burden estimate is due to the
additional Form 3520–A has been added
to this collection.
Type of Review: Revision of a
currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Individuals or
households.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
1,820.
Estimated Time per Respondent: 51
hours, 56 minutes.
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 94,537.
The following paragraph applies to all
of the collections of information covered
by this notice.
An agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information
unless the collection of information
displays a valid OMB control number.
Books or records relating to a collection
of information must be retained as long
as their contents may become material
in the administration of any internal
revenue law. Generally, tax returns and
tax return information are confidential,
as required by 26 U.S.C. 6103.
Request for Comments: Comments
submitted in response to this notice will
be summarized and/or included in the
request for OMB approval. All
comments will become a matter of
public record. Comments are invited on:
(a) Whether the collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
agency, including whether the
information shall have practical utility;
(b) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate
of the burden of the collection of
information; (c) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; (d) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection of
information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information
technology; and (e) estimates of capital
or start-up costs and costs of operation,
maintenance, and purchase of services
to provide information.
Approved: August 14, 2019.
Laurie Brimmer,
Senior Tax Analyst.
[FR Doc. 2019–17812 Filed 8–19–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4830–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS
AFFAIRS
Annual Pay Ranges for Physicians,
Dentists, and Podiatrists of the
Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
Department of Veterans Affairs.
Notice.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
PO 00000
Frm 00163
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
43261
SUMMARY: The Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) is hereby giving notice of
annual pay range, which is the sum of
the base pay rate and market pay for
Veterans Health Administration (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 our Nation’s Veterans
and maintain a standard of excellence in
the VA health care system.
DATES: Annual pay ranges are applicable
October 27, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Farine Cohen, Program Analyst, Policy
and Programs, VHA Workforce
Management & Consulting Office
(10A2A), Department of Veterans
Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20420, (202) 461–7179.
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 paragraph 7431(e)
shall be published in the Federal
Register and shall not take effect until
at least 60 days after date of publication.
In addition, under 38 U.S.C.
7431(e)(4), the total amount of
compensation paid to a physician,
dentist, or podiatrists 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
subparagraph 7431(e)(4), ‘‘the total
amount of compensation’’ includes base
pay, market pay, performance pay,
recruitment, relocation, and retention
incentives, incentive awards for
performance and special contributions,
and fee basis earnings.
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. The
major provisions of the law established
a new pay system for Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) physicians and
dentists consisting of base pay, market
pay, and performance pay. While the
E:\FR\FM\20AUN1.SGM
20AUN1
43262
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 161 / Tuesday, August 20, 2019 / Notices
jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with NOTICES
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. These three
components create a system of pay that
is driven by both market indicators and
employee performance, while
recognizing employee tenure in VHA.
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 physician and dentists
under 7431.
With regard to the Pay Tables for
physicians and dentists, there have been
changes to the minimum and maximum
amounts for Pay Table 5. However, the
minimum and maximum amounts for
Pay Tables 1–4 have remained
unchanged since the 2016 publication
in the Federal Register.
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
system. The Association of American
Medical Colleges (AAMC), Hospital and
Healthcare Compensation Service
(HHCS), Sullivan, Cotter, and Associates
(S&C), Medical Group Management
Association (MGMA), and the Survey of
Dental Practice published by the
American Dental Association (ADA)
were collectively utilized as
benchmarks from which 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.
In constructing annual pay ranges to
accommodate the more than 40
specialties that currently exist in the VA
system, VA continued the practice of
grouping specialties into consolidated
pay ranges. This allows VA to use
multiple sources that yield a high
number of salary data which helps to
minimize disparities and aberrations
that may surface from data involving
smaller numbers for comparison and
from sample change from year to year.
Thus, by aggregating multiple survey
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:49 Aug 19, 2019
Jkt 247001
sources into like groupings, greater
confidence exists that the average
compensation reported is truly
representative. In addition, aggregation
of data provides for a large enough
sample size and provides pay ranges
with maximum flexibility for pay setting
for VHA physicians, dentists, and
podiatrists.
In developing the annual pay ranges,
a few distinctive principles were
factored into the compensation analysis
of the data. The first principle is to
ensure that both the minimum and
maximum salary is 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 is to
provide ranges large enough to
accommodate career progression,
geographic differences, subspecialization, and other special factors.
Clinical specialties were reviewed
against available, relevant private sector
data. The specialties are grouped into
four clinical pay ranges that reflect
comparable complexity in salary,
recruitment, and retention
considerations. One recommendation
was made to rename Anesthesiology
Pain Management in Pay Table 3 to Pain
Management (Interventional and NonOperating Room (OR) Anesthesiology).
This change is necessary to distinguish
that Interventional/Non-OR
Anesthesiology is the primary role. Two
additional pay ranges apply to VHA
Chiefs of Staff and executive level
administrative assignments at the
facility, network, or headquarters level.
There is a change to Pay Table 5.
Tier level
Minimum
Maximum
Pay Table 6—Covered Executive
Assignments
Principal Deputy, Deputy Under Secretary for
Health, Chief Officer, Network Director,
Medical Center Director, Network Chief Officer, Executive Director, Assistant Under
Secretary for Health, VA Central Office
Chief Consultant, National Director, National Program Manager and other VA
Central Office Physician/Dentist.
Signing Authority
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs
approved this document 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. Robert L. Wilkie,
Secretary, Department of Veterans
Affairs, approved this document on
August 8, 2019, for publication.
Dated: August 15, 2019.
Jeffrey M. Martin,
Assistant Director, Office of Regulation Policy
& Management, Office of the Secretary,
Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2019–17901 Filed 8–19–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8320–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS
AFFAIRS
Veterans’ Family, Caregiver, and
Survivor Advisory Committee, Notice
of Meeting
The Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) gives notice under the Federal
Advisory Committee Act (FACA) that
the Veterans’ Family, Caregiver, and
Survivor Advisory Committee will meet
Tier level
Minimum Maximum on September 25–26, 2019. The meeting
will be held at the American Red Cross,
Pay Table 5—Chief of Staff
430 17th Street NW, Washington, DC
20006. The meeting sessions will begin
TIER 1 ...................... $150,000 $350,000 and end as follows:
TIER 2 ......................
TIER 3 ......................
TIER 4 ......................
147,000
145,000
140,000
325,000
300,000
275,000
Pay Table 5—Covered Assignments
VHA Chiefs of Staff—Tier assignments are
based on published facility complexity
level: Network Chief Medical Officer, Chief
of Staff Complexity Levels 1a & 1b Chief of
Staff Complexity Level 1c, Deputy Network
Chief Medical Officer, Chief of Staff Complexity Level 2, Chief of Staff Complexity
Level 3, and All Deputy Chiefs of Staff.
Pay Table 6—Executive Assignments
TIER 1 ......................
TIER 2 ......................
TIER 3 ......................
PO 00000
Frm 00164
Fmt 4703
145,000
145,000
130,000
Sfmt 4703
304,750
249,900
235,000
Date
September 25, 2019
September 26, 2019
Time
9:00 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. EST.
9:00 a.m. to 2:00
p.m. EST.
The meetings are open to the public.
The purpose of the Committee is to
advise the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
on matters related to: The need of
Veterans’ families, caregivers, and
survivors across all generations,
relationships, and Veterans status; the
use of VA care, benefits and memorial
services by Veterans’ families,
caregivers, and survivors, and
opportunities for improvements to the
E:\FR\FM\20AUN1.SGM
20AUN1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 161 (Tuesday, August 20, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43261-43262]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-17901]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Annual Pay Ranges for Physicians, Dentists, and Podiatrists of
the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is hereby giving
notice of annual pay range, which is the sum of the base pay rate and
market pay for Veterans Health Administration (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 our Nation's
Veterans and maintain a standard of excellence in the VA health care
system.
DATES: Annual pay ranges are applicable October 27, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Farine Cohen, Program Analyst, Policy
and Programs, VHA Workforce Management & Consulting Office (10A2A),
Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC
20420, (202) 461-7179. 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 paragraph
7431(e) shall be published in the Federal Register and shall not take
effect until at least 60 days after date of publication.
In addition, under 38 U.S.C. 7431(e)(4), the total amount of
compensation paid to a physician, dentist, or podiatrists 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 subparagraph 7431(e)(4), ``the total amount of
compensation'' includes base pay, market pay, performance pay,
recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives, incentive awards for
performance and special contributions, and fee basis earnings.
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. The major provisions of the law established a new
pay system for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) physicians and
dentists consisting of base pay, market pay, and performance pay. While
the
[[Page 43262]]
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. These three components
create a system of pay that is driven by both market indicators and
employee performance, while recognizing employee tenure in VHA.
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 physician and dentists under 7431.
With regard to the Pay Tables for physicians and dentists, there
have been changes to the minimum and maximum amounts for Pay Table 5.
However, the minimum and maximum amounts for Pay Tables 1-4 have
remained unchanged since the 2016 publication in the Federal Register.
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 system. The
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Hospital and
Healthcare Compensation Service (HHCS), Sullivan, Cotter, and
Associates (S&C), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), and the
Survey of Dental Practice published by the American Dental Association
(ADA) were collectively utilized as benchmarks from which 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.
In constructing annual pay ranges to accommodate the more than 40
specialties that currently exist in the VA system, VA continued the
practice of grouping specialties into consolidated pay ranges. This
allows VA to use multiple sources that yield a high number of salary
data which helps to minimize disparities and aberrations that may
surface from data involving smaller numbers for comparison and from
sample change from year to year. Thus, by aggregating multiple survey
sources into like groupings, greater confidence exists that the average
compensation reported is truly representative. In addition, aggregation
of data provides for a large enough sample size and provides pay ranges
with maximum flexibility for pay setting for VHA physicians, dentists,
and podiatrists.
In developing the annual pay ranges, a few distinctive principles
were factored into the compensation analysis of the data. The first
principle is to ensure that both the minimum and maximum salary is 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 is to provide 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 four clinical pay
ranges that reflect comparable complexity in salary, recruitment, and
retention considerations. One recommendation was made to rename
Anesthesiology Pain Management in Pay Table 3 to Pain Management
(Interventional and Non-Operating Room (OR) Anesthesiology). This
change is necessary to distinguish that Interventional/Non-OR
Anesthesiology is the primary role. Two additional pay ranges apply to
VHA Chiefs of Staff and executive level administrative assignments at
the facility, network, or headquarters level. There is a change to Pay
Table 5.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tier level Minimum Maximum
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pay Table 5--Chief of Staff
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIER 1............................................ $150,000 $350,000
TIER 2............................................ 147,000 325,000
TIER 3............................................ 145,000 300,000
TIER 4............................................ 140,000 275,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pay Table 5--Covered Assignments
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VHA Chiefs of Staff--Tier assignments are based on published facility
complexity level: Network Chief Medical Officer, Chief of Staff
Complexity Levels 1a & 1b Chief of Staff Complexity Level 1c, Deputy
Network Chief Medical Officer, Chief of Staff Complexity Level 2, Chief
of Staff Complexity Level 3, and All Deputy Chiefs of Staff.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pay Table 6--Executive Assignments
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIER 1............................................ 145,000 304,750
TIER 2............................................ 145,000 249,900
TIER 3............................................ 130,000 235,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pay Table 6--Covered Executive Assignments
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Principal Deputy, Deputy Under Secretary for Health, Chief Officer,
Network Director, Medical Center Director, Network Chief Officer,
Executive Director, Assistant Under Secretary for Health, VA Central
Office Chief Consultant, National Director, National Program Manager
and other VA Central Office Physician/Dentist.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Signing Authority
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs approved this document 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. Robert L.
Wilkie, Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs, approved this
document on August 8, 2019, for publication.
Dated: August 15, 2019.
Jeffrey M. Martin,
Assistant Director, Office of Regulation Policy & Management, Office of
the Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2019-17901 Filed 8-19-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8320-01-P