The Defense Health Agency oversees a workforce of more than 130,000 at military hospitals and clinics worldwide and is offering voluntary buyouts to some civilian personnel, the agency said. Air Force medical personnel are shown here providing a dental wellness check to a patient. (U.S. Air Force)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Health Agency that oversees more than 700 military hospitals and clinics worldwide disclosed Thursday that it made a buyout offer to an unidentified number of civilian personnel to be considered for lump-sum payouts to leave their jobs under a restructuring of the federal agency.
The Defense Health Agency said it plans to grant the voluntary buyouts to certain employees on a job-by-job basis as part of a Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment program. Employees were required to submit applications this week to express their interest in accepting an incentive payment to resign, the agency said. But the agency declined to discuss the specific terms outlined in the buyouts.
But the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority, also known as the buyout authority, allows federal agencies downsizing or restructuring to offer employees one-time payments of up to $25,000 as an incentive to resign from their jobs, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
The Defense Health Agency oversees the nation’s largest health-care system that serves a patient population of more than 9.5 million service members, retirees and their families.
“Any effort to slash the Department of Defense’s health care civilian workforce without a careful analysis is a threat to our national security and service members’ ability to access health care and other critical services,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
More than 39,000 employees at the Defense Health Agency are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, according to AFGE.
An AFGE spokesman said Thursday that the buyout offer is among several initiatives by the Defense Health Agency to draw down its workforce, including deferred resignations and early retirements.
The agency’s offer of voluntary resignations follows an announcement by the Defense Department earlier this year that it would reduce its workforce by 5% to 8% as part of a larger downsizing of federal agencies ordered by President Donald Trump.
Network directors who manage the Defense Health Agency with a workforce of 130,000 were authorized to identify certain jobs to eliminate and ask employees to submit applications by Aug. 18, according to the agency. But an employee’s application for the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment, or VSIP, option does not guarantee an offer, the agency said.
“This is a voluntary program, and network directors retain authority to approve or disapprove of requests,” according to the agency.
The agency also declined to identify the number of employees who turned in applications by a Monday deadline or the types of jobs targeted for downsizing. The agency’s decisions on the applications are expected by the end of August, according to AFGE.
Certain jobs were exempted from the buyout program at the discretion of the network directors, the Defense Health Agency said.
“Defense Health Agency network directors were authorized to offer the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment or VSIP incentive to shape their workforce and enable our military hospitals and clinics to deliver their capabilities and services within the scope of their facilities’ plans,” the agency said in a written statement.
An “agency may offer VSIP to employees who are in surplus positions or have skills that are no longer needed in the workforce who volunteer to separate by resignation,” according to the Office of Personnel Management. “Agencies such as the Department of Defense that have been granted agency-specific VSIP authority are not required to seek OPM approval for their use of this option.”
The Defense Health Agency is a combat support agency with a mission to provide and manage a medically ready force, according to the Defense Department.
The Defense Department is the nation’s largest employer, with more than 2.1 million service members and more than 800,000 civilian workers.
