NMC incompetence and horrible manning

Correct! I apologize if I confused anyone. I was referring to my Med Cert and I was on a foreign voyage. I sent in the paperwork about a month and a half prior to expiration and got it back around the 3 month mark.

You can’t just “call an evaluator” anytime you want. Even when you have an application being evaluated it’s nearly impossible to get an evaluator on the phone.

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This.

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Just as an update, as of 8 days ago I actually did contact my congressman for assistance in communicating with the NMC to see why my processing is taking so long.

I just called today to see if I could get an update from that congressmans office as to what they had heard (I didn’t get any word from them in the past week). They told me their liaison at the Coast Guard had been contacted, and they are waiting on a response…

So now I am waiting for communication from two different sources on this. I really am quite burnt out. I am soon approaching the 90 day mark. In less than a month my document will be expired and I will be beached for an unknown amount of time. I have been “enjoying” my time off the vessel living as if I may not work for an unknown period of time and stressing about this situation. I have no faith in the Coast Guard and I am quickly losing faith in this industry in general. Even if this gets sorted I am now considering putting in for a slightly early retirement. If this is how we are going to be treated now I have had enough. I need a reliable expectation of income.

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This is bullshit.

Maybe getting both of your senators involved as well will help.

No Mariner who sends in a renewal in a timely manor should lose their job due to the NMC’s incompetence.

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During COVID times, credential expirations were extended by a MSIB. They could (should) do that again.

After a 4 month wait, my license renewal has been mailed. There was a long hang up for Additional Information for a Tkmn/PIC endorsement. Turns out the information had been provided all along. Several phone calls helped the evaluator get er done. I learned that leaving a voicemail forces the evaluator to respond within 7 days, or the query gets kicked up the chain of command. Sort of a squeaky wheel situation.

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How are you getting in direct contact with the evaluator? All I have access to is the NMC support line, which has been far less than helpful or informative.

Call the NMC and ask to leave a voicemail to the evaluator.

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Just made an attempt to do this today, I was told by two different representatives on the phone that the option to leave a voicemail for an evaluator is not available for medical processing, only for licensing. So unfortunately for my situation I wasn’t able to. Thanks for the suggestion though.

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So today, Sunday at noon, I received an email saying my med cert application has been assigned to an evaluator. They acknowledged receipt of the application 15 August. Totally unacceptable and now costing me employment time.

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Another update. Finally got a response from the coast guard contact my senator reached out to, sent to me through said senator. Absolutely nothing was done. The statement claimed they reviewed my case and decided there was no need to prioritize my medical certificate renewal review over other submissions. I’m beyond 90 days now. Still waiting on “Ready To Be Evaluated”. Days away from expiration. Luckily my schedule shifted so I have another 6 weeks before I’ll be returning to work. That may have saved me. Hopefully that’s enough time for this to be sorted… Very frustrated with all of this… Submitting such a simple certificate renewal over 100 days before its expiration, when the suggestion is 90 days before its expiration should be enough…

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And some people thought my criticisms of the NMC were misplaced.

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This is likely because the medical eval is done at the REC level, and then sent to NMC for professional/qualifications eval.

I have a contact at an REC that is most helpful (and available) if you need. I don’t want to post it publicly for fear the poor gal will get bombarded.

No. The RECs have nothing to do with medicals.

The Medicals go directly to a centralized medical department for processing. I don’t know if it’s actually even at NMC.

NMC is probably one of the most mismanaged and dysfunctional government agencies, but virtually every other government agency is very bad too.

Government employment today has 50% become a welfare program for people who cannot hold a real job in the commercial economy.

The government needs to bring back competitive civil service exams and hire strictly on merit. They need to demand productivity and performance. They need to do an annual review and give the top 10% large bonuses and fire the bottom 10%.

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Biggest issue I think is outsourcing. Call center doesn’t get you a Coastie on the phone. I believe it’s ran by Insight Technologies contractors.

There’s hardly any uniformed Coasties involved in any of it anymore. Good luck finding somebody at the REC wearing a uniform.

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Last time I saw one was in NY, a Chief Petty Officer… had to be 2004.

And he was an asshole.

He sure was. My photo rubbed right off the Z-Card and he tried telling me it wasn’t a reason to apply for a duplicate or new card. It was the moment I realized there was nothing remarkable about being a CPO.

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