Med Waiver Process a mystery to me and my PCM.

[JoeHello]

I cannot for the life of me find any guidance on the med waiver process online. I need to submit a waiver for kidney disease ( a long shot I know), and I am active duty, so I do not have a recruiter to walk me through this. When I went to my PCM for guidance, she had never done a waiver for ocs before, and asked me to get more information. She is also trying to find more out but she wanted me to take point. My questions:

Can I start a med waiver before applying? or do I have to be pro-rec first?
Is there an official format?
Who do I send it too? BUMED?
What all is included? Labs/letters/etc
How long is traditional to wait for a response?

I have applied once before to OCS and was a non-select, I know whats you are selected you have a small time frame to get medical cleared, and this is why I want to do my waiver now, also, I may not be physically qualified to commission.

My kidney condition DOES NOT affect my enlistment. I am asymptomatic, have completed a re-enlistment physical, and for the most part fully deployable.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I cannot for the life of me find any guidance on the med waiver process online. I need to submit a waiver for kidney disease ( a long shot I know), and I am active duty, so I do not have a recruiter to walk me through this. When I went to my PCM for guidance, she had never done a waiver for ocs before, and asked me to get more information. She is also trying to find more out but she wanted me to take point. My questions:

Can I start a med waiver before applying? or do I have to be pro-rec first?
Is there an official format?
Who do I send it too? BUMED?
What all is included? Labs/letters/etc
How long is traditional to wait for a response?

I have applied once before to OCS and was a non-select, I know whats you are selected you have a small time frame to get medical cleared, and this is why I want to do my waiver now, also, I may not be physically qualified to commission.

My kidney condition DOES NOT affect my enlistment. I am asymptomatic, have completed a re-enlistment physical, and for the most part fully deployable.

The waiver is part of the being declared PQ process, do the normal commissioning physical, include all the documention it goes to N3M and they review and decide if a waiver is justified or not.

N3M has said a few times that just because a person is able to be retained on active duty for enlisted does not mean they meet the standards and will be cleared for commissioning.

 

[JoeHello]

Roger Chief,

Thank you, as always, for a quick response. I will start working on my next package.

 

[Beefalo]

Good luck. My vision refraction doesnt meet commissioning standards but I was FS for OCS. During my enlistment my vision just crapped out but still within the correctable 20/20 for enlisted retention. Oh and this was for IW, NAMI still NPQ'd me for NFO.

 

[BleedGreen]

Good luck. My vision refraction doesnt meet commissioning standards but I was FS for OCS. During my enlistment my vision just crapped out but still within the correctable 20/20 for enlisted retention. Oh and this was for IW, NAMI still NPQ'd me for NFO.

NAMI NPQ'd you are N3M?

 

[TimeBomb]

JoeHello,
I can't tell from your post if you're applying for aviation in addition to requesting a waiver of standards for commissioning. The information below assumes that you are.
Chapter 15 of the Manual of the Medical Department (MANMED) details the initial physical exam process, and gives a cursory description of the process for applying for a waiver of physical standards. More information can be gleaned by talking to the people at BUMED who are tasked with reviewing your physical and any waiver requests/recommendations, and making their recomendation to BUPERS for final approval. MANMED Ch. 15 is guided by DODI 6130 series, which details the physical qualifications for entry or commissioning. As you allude to, the standards for initial entry or commissioning are different than those for retention. A few words with BUMED may be able to save you a lot of trouble, for if they are unwilling to recommend a waiver of commissioning standards for your condition, there's no real need to go any further, unless for some reason you believe that BUPERS will not follow BUMED's recommendation.
If you approved for commissioning, you then must meet the physical standards for aviation, or be granted a waiver of physical standards for aviation (or any other special duty). Receiving a favorable waiver recommendation for special duty is contingent upon being granted a waiver for commissioning. It's a tiered system. You can't be fit (or waived) for special duty unless you're fit (or waived) for general duty.
As a general rule, almost any medical condition can be theoretically be waived, but in reality, the aperture changes depending on the needs of the service and the particular diagnosis. In this personnel environment, it isn't really necessary to take on a lot of people with anything other than the most trivial of medical conditions. There's no benefit to the services to accept more than the normal potential for a career cut short by a medical condition, and also incur the downstream costs for a lifetime of medical care.
R/

 

[BleedGreen]

Words

Do you know how an applicant can go about contacting those people at BUMED that review your physical?

 

[TimeBomb]

BleedGreen,
To what programs are you applying? Will you need a waiver of standards for commissioning as well as a waiver of standards for special duty?
I strongly recommend NOT attempting to contact BUMED directly. I recommend that any conversation with BUMED be between your recruiter or your physician, if military. Your recruiter will almost certainly have a point of contact at BUMED who can speak to the status of your physical, and any waiver recommendation. If you haven't yet submitted a physical for review, your recruiter may be able to present your information to that POC as a "hypothetical" scenario to see which way the waiver winds are blowing up there at the moment.
R/

 

[BleedGreen]

... your recruiter may be able to present your information to that POC as a "hypothetical" scenario to see which way the waiver winds are blowing up there at the moment.
R/

Ok that makes sense...I will take your advice and stay away from contacting BUMED myself as that sounds like a bad idea. Basically I am trying to submit my physical for reconsideration because the original determination they made seems like a mistake. I was PQ for unrestricted line but was told that I "don't meet the requirements" for pilot programs based on a history of traumatic pneumothorax. From the numerous flight surgeons and doctors I have spoke with about my history, they feel N3M made a mistake in disqualifying me. I was hoping to maybe steer my fairly new recruiter in the right direction since he has been trying to contact NAMI about my situation only to be told they can't help since I am an applicant and not in OCS.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Ok that makes sense...I will take your advice and stay away from contacting BUMED myself as that sounds like a bad idea. Basically I am trying to submit my physical for reconsideration because the original determination they made seems like a mistake. I was PQ for unrestricted line but was told that I "don't meet the requirements" for pilot programs based on a history of traumatic pneumothorax. From the numerous flight surgeons and doctors I have spoke with about my history, they feel N3M made a mistake in disqualifying me. I was hoping to maybe steer my fairly new recruiter in the right direction since he has been trying to contact NAMI about my situation only to be told they can't help since I am an applicant and not in OCS.

I may have mentioned this before but I am reminded of this, I had an individual waivered for a condition, then another for the same condition was not, I called N3M and my friend there said the Doc had changed out, what one will waiver another will not.

It doesn't matter if every flight surgeon in the USN said it should be waivered, if the guy who has to sign off on your paperwork at N3M or NAMI says no that is it, it is his name on the line if something bad happens down the road.

 

[BleedGreen]

I may have mentioned this before but I am reminded of this, I had an individual waivered for a condition, then another for the same condition was not, I called N3M and my friend there said the Doc had changed out, what one will waiver another will not.

It doesn't matter if every flight surgeon in the USN said it should be waivered, if the guy who has to sign off on your paperwork at N3M or NAMI says no that is it, it is his name on the line if something bad happens down the road.

I understand them putting their name on the line for a waiver but I shouldn't need to request a waiver because my history is not disqualifying. A traumatic pneumothorax only requires a waiver for the first 12 months post injury. Anything after that is NCD. I would understand if I was one of those "on the line" cases but my injury was four years ago.

 

[Beefalo]

NAMI NPQ'd you are N3M?

N3M cleared me for commissioning. NAMI NPQ for aviation so I am going in as an IW since NAMI doenst have anything to do outside of pilot/NFO.

 

[BleedGreen]

N3M cleared me for commissioning. NAMI NPQ for aviation so I am going in as an IW since NAMI doenst have anything to do outside of pilot/NFO.

Gotcha...Did NAMI see your physical prior to going to OCS?

 

[JoeHello]

I did eventually find out who I should be talking with. I am dealing directly with the fleet processors, who are going to have medical review my situation. Hopefully everything goes well. Thank you for all of the info so far, has been very helpful.

 

[alaurin]

Hi guys, sorry to resurrect an old thread.

I received news that I was PDQ'd yesterday, I haven't received my official letter yet. Wondering where to focus my energy first?