10 U.S.C. § 2114 — Students: selection; status; obligation

(a) The Secretary of Defense sets medical-student selection procedures and must consider the Board’s recommendations. The procedures must emphasize sincere motivation and dedication to a uniformed-services career, as defined in section 1072(1). (b)(1) Under regulations issued after consulting the Health and Human Services Secretary, medical students are commissioned officers of a uniformed service as determined by the regulations. They are regular officers in the grade of second lieutenant or ensign and serve active duty in that grade. (2) A selected service member whose prior active service and pay-grade service years would produce higher basic pay than the second-lieutenant or ensign rate must receive pay based on the former grade and credited service years. That amount increases each January 1 by the average percentage increase in basic pay that day. The member keeps that pay until pay in the actual grade and credited service years becomes higher, whether before or after graduation. (c) Graduates must serve active duty unless section 2115 applies. Except as that section provides, they must serve at least seven years under applicable Defense or Health and Human Services regulations unless released sooner. After completing or being released from that obligation, a program member who served less than 10 active-duty years must serve in the Ready Reserve as follows: less than 8 active-duty years, 6 Ready Reserve years; at least 8 but less than 9, 4 years; at least 9 but less than 10, 2 years. Section 2126’s service-credit exclusions apply. (d) Military intern or residency time does not count toward the commissioned service obligation imposed here. (e) A student dropped under Defense regulations for conduct, studies, or another reason may be required to serve active duty in an appropriate military capacity under this section’s obligation. The required active duty may not exceed the time the student participated in the program, but may not be less than one year. (f)(1) The Secretary may make reimbursable or nonreimbursable reciprocal-education agreements with foreign military medical schools. University students may receive specialized military medical instruction there, and that country’s military medical personnel may receive it at the University. (2) No more than 40 people may receive instruction under this subsection at one time. Their attendance may not reduce University enrollment, and subsection (b) does not apply to them. (3) With Defense Secretary approval, the University President chooses eligible countries and each country’s number of people, sets qualifications and selection methods, and selects students. Qualifications must be comparable to those for United States citizens. (4) Each country must reimburse instruction costs unless the Defense Secretary waives reimbursement; the Secretary sets rates. (5) Unless the President determines otherwise, these students follow the same attendance, discipline, discharge, and dismissal rules as University students. The Secretary may set different classified-information access rules. (g) “Commissioned service obligation” means, for a University graduate who is an officer, the period from appointment to a regular component after graduation through the appointment’s tenth anniversary. This section does not otherwise define the quoted term. (h)(1) Coordinating with the Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs Secretaries, the Defense Secretary must establish selection procedures, service obligations, and other appropriate requirements for nonmedical graduate students in an institute under section 2113(e). (2)(A) A covered employee whose Veterans Affairs, Public Health Service, or Coast Guard employment or service is in a position relevant to national security or health sciences may receive University instruction within that employment or service. (B) The agency head must reimburse the University, which retains the money for instruction costs. (C) Despite subsections (b)-(e) and (i), the agency head sets the employee’s service obligation under applicable law. (D) “Covered employee” means a Veterans Affairs employee, civilian Public Health Service employee, commissioned Public Health Service member, Coast Guard member, or civilian Coast Guard employee. “Head of the Federal agency concerned” means the head of the agency employing the employee or having jurisdiction over the employee’s uniformed service. (i) A University graduate released from the subsection (c) active-duty obligation before it ends may be given, with or without consent, an alternative obligation in the manner provided by section 2123(e)(1)(A)-(B) or paragraph (2) for Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Financial Assistance Program members.