Clarification from the agency

Qualified candidates will be referred in the following order: 1) Current, Permanent employees of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, 2) Current, Permanent employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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Duties of the position include but are not limited to:

• Applies knowledge of medical center organization, functions, specialties, and programs, i.e., Social Work, Nursing, Laboratory, Radiology, etc. Coordinates administrative activities with IRM, Engineering, Laboratory, Radiology, Nursing, and Environmental Management personnel, among others.
• Approves and coordinates administrative tests and procedures which cannot be done at medical center.
• Receives and responds to non-routine patient condition inquiries and other administrative inquiries from concerned veterans, families, visitors, law enforcement officials, representatives from private hospitals, veterans service organization representatives, Congressional offices, military personnel, private physicians, media, and the general public.
• Provides compassionate and sympathetic explanation of death and burial benefits to family and next of kin.
• Provides written and oral reporting of incidents involving beneficiaries, employees, as well as safety or other issues.
• Processes administrative issues surrounding beneficiary death, seriously ill cases, elopements, suicides, assaults, deaths on arrival (DOAs), homicides, codes, cost recovery matters, and facility or community disasters, etc.
• Maintains current bed inventory; obtains bed availability for treatment needs.
• Represents management in matters pertaining to the lawful retention of veterans.
• Interprets VA rules and regulations relating to determining legal entitlement to benefits relating to hospital admission; nursing home, fee basis, and outpatient care; dental treatment; prosthetic appliances; patient transfer; and beneficiary travel.
• Oversees determination of applicant's eligibility; obtaining income and insurance information for appropriate non service-connected applicants.
• Assists medical center staff with medically related legal problems, including involuntary commitments, orders of protective custody, and management of unruly or severely disturbed patients.
• Intervenes directly when problems regarding patient activity occurs.
• Coordinates non-routine contacts received at the medical center after regular operating hours.

Work Schedule: Nights, Weekend, and Holidays TBD
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Medical Management Specialist/PD99385-S
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period or trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/06/2026.


Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Experience and Education:

1). Experience: One year equivalent to at least GS-7 of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Preform medical-legal administration functions of a comprehensive medical center.
• Knowledge of all aspects of the Medical Administration Service programs and how they interrelate to all other Medical Center services and programs.
• Interpret laws, regulations, policies, and guidelines governing health care delivery systems (i.e. eligibility for medical benefits, processing of applications, beneficiary travel, patient transfers, inter-facility consults.
• Established effective working relationships that contributed to the attainment of the organization's goals.
• Communicate both orally and in writing with health care professionals, other medical center personnel and outside constituents.
• Apply Federal laws and other regulations to priorities of care, patient processing, entitlements, clinical/admission procedures and other appropriate patient processing activities.
• Investigate and obtain preliminary data involving injuries of patients or employees or employee/patient complaints and take immediate action to oversee the proper handling of all non-medical emergencies.
• Coordinate administrative matters that arise within a medical center/hospital on matters relating to personnel on duty during irregular hours for proper actions, emergency repairs, call-in personnel for emergency repairs or patient care emergency reasons.
• Identify and analyze complex problems or situations with a range of variables.
• Explain and organize complex issue in writing, complete projects; studies; narrative and statistical reports; and review in a through accurate and timely manner.

OR,

2). Education: master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or
LL.B. or J.D., if related

OR,
3). Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combinations of creditable experience and education are qualifying towards meeting basic experience requirements.


You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Communication
• Organizational Awareness
• Planning and Evaluating
• Problem Solving
• Technical Credibility

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work requires much walking through the medical center with occasionally the requirement to lift objects such as suitcases, clothing, or medical charts.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.