Military will now prescreen recruits for 28 medical conditions

Military processing stations are slimming down on the number of applicants they review with a prescreening process that flags any of 28 medical conditions that are generally considered disqualifying for service.

U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command, MEPCOM, officials announced Monday that they are implementing a new policy that cuts applicants earlier in the recruiting process. If an applicant has at least one of 28 identified medical conditions, they will not be invited for a physical exam with a doctor, which is required before joining the service. 

“It is a process change that stops processing for applicants with one or more specific disqualifying conditions that have been identified by service waiver authorities as unlikely to be waived,” Marshall Smith, a spokesperson for MEPCOM told Task & Purpose.

The list of 28 medical issues includes health conditions that are either relatively common across certain segments of the U.S. population or are on the rise in some instances. It includes sickle cell disease, which disproportionately affects African Americans, peanut allergies, one of the most common food allergies across the U.S., and type I or II diabetes, which is on the rise among young Americans. 

Other conditions that were deemed “unlikely to be waived” by the military branches include those with: cancer that is active or in remission for less than one year; Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis; eczema or psoriasis which have required medication within a year; a knee ligament rupture in the last year; stress fractures in the previous 6 months; cochlear implants or a pacemaker. The list also includes mental health conditions that required antipsychotic or mood stabilizers (like lithium) in the previous year, a history of two or more suicide attempts, or a diagnosis of Bipolar disorder I or II.

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Source: Task & Purpose
Website: taskandpurpose.com