Clarification from the agency

NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

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Duties include, but are not limited to:

• Receiving incoming telephone calls in reference to referrals, admission and outpatient treatment. Provides clerical and administrative support to professional staff from VA and non-VA facilities.
• Notifying veteran by letter, telephone, or in person, of scheduled appointments or admission; assisting the veteran in coordinating scheduled procedures, clinic appointments, and travel.
• Receiving, processing, or updating and deciding on applications for health benefits.
• Interpreting, and making practical application of all regulatory material, pertaining to services provided to veteran applicants.
• Explaining individual's specific conditions or actions, which could affect the individual's status or eligibility for benefits. Verifying eligibility for VHA benefits, patient's entitlement to care via administrative functions
• Ensuring availability of all medical and administrative records, and radiology films prior to patient's arrival. Obtains results of laboratory tests, radiology reports, and other tests.
• Coordinating travel and transfer arrangements ensuring that proper transportation mode and equipment (oxygen, IV's, etc.) are provided, appropriate notifications made, and record referral requests completed.
• Processing requests and completing arrangements for follow up treatment on all referrals.
• Collaborating, communicating, setting priorities, and organizing the work in order to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations. Administrative point of contact, and administrative support person, for inpatient units.
• Communicating tactfully and effectively, both orally and in writing. Preparing reports in various formats and presenting data to various organizational levels.
• Knowledge of the technical health care process as it relates to access to care, i.e., assures correct provider is assigned to patient, notifies physician of admission, correctly enters patient movements electronically, schedules outpatient appointments, discharge appointments, supports nursing staff with necessary admission, and transfer processes.
• Knowledge of managing ward units. This includes independently utilizing reference sources, decision making, and empowering the team to collaborate and resolve problems within a complex systems environment.
• Knowledge of policies and procedures associated with operational activities that affect the patient flow, patient care, and the revenue process. Responsible for initiating and performing a variety of administrative functions in support of the overall care and treatment of patients on medical, surgical, psychiatric, long term care, and sub-specialty care units.
• Knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians and the close working relationship with the clinical staff on assigned units.
• Maintaining the medical record from admission to discharge or transfer, reviewing for completeness, accuracy, and correct sequence; receives, refers and files the results of various tests in patient's chart, keeping the chart current and accurate.
• Ensuring adequate stock of department/unit supplies, assuring tidiness of department/unit area, reporting any faulty, damaged, or lost equipment to appropriate service.
• Initiating surgical authorization and completes all preoperative requirements through working knowledge of what needs to be completed. Ensuring consent forms are completed and in the medical records.

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 0730 to 1600
Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not authorized
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases
Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience.
Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.
Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.
Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA
Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)
Telework: Not available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
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.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• 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).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 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 trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

BASIC REQUIREMENTS
Citizenship. Citizen of the United States.

Experience and Education.
(1) Experience. No experience required; OR,
(2) Education. High school diploma, General Education Development equivalency certificate, or proficiency certificate from a State or territorial-level Board of Department of Education

Grandfathering Provision. All MSAs employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series, and grade held, which are a part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all the basic requirements required in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply: (1) Such employees may be reassigned, promoted, or [changed to a lower grade] within the occupation. (2) Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on a temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard. (3) If an employee who was converted to Title 38 hybrid status under this provision leaves the occupation, the employee loses protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation.

Foreign Education. To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must have been submitted to a private organization that specializes in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials and such education must have been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. programs.

GRADE REQUIREMENTS

Creditable Experience
(1) Knowledge of MSA Practices. To be creditable, the experience must have demonstrated the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) associated with current MSA responsibilities [or an equivalent administrative patient support role in a non-VA medical inpatient or outpatient setting]. Experience satisfying this requirement may be paid/non-paid employment as an MSA or an equivalent position in a non-VA hospital or clinic setting.
(2) Quality of Experience. Qualifying experience must be at a level comparable to MSA experience or equivalent administrative clinical support role in a non-VA medical inpatient or outpatient setting at the next lower grade level. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity (difficulty), and a range of varieties as described in this standard, at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Part-Time Experience. Part-time experience as an MSA or equivalent administrative patient support in a non-VA medical inpatient or outpatient setting is creditable according to its relationship to the full-time workweek. For example, an MSA employed 20 hours a week, or on a 1/2-time basis, would receive one full-time workweek of credit for each two weeks of service.

In addition to the basic requirements for employment listed in paragraph 3 above, the following education and experience criteria must be met:

Experience: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-4 grade level; OR,
Education: Two years of education above high school.

Assignment. This is the full performance level for MSAs. At this level, the MSA independently performs a full range of duties related to the delivery of healthcare services in an inpatient or outpatient setting. Advises clinical staff on current administrative processes. The MSA is responsible for answering phones, greeting patients, relaying messages to appropriate staff inside or outside of the unit, scheduling appointments, including interpreting and verifying provider orders in accordance with VHA national scheduling guidelines. Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: scheduling, canceling, re-scheduling patient appointments and/or consults; entering no-show information; monitoring appointment requests from multiple electronic sources; participating in huddles with other MSAs and/or clinic staff to determine the daily needs of the clinic, monitoring both inpatient and outpatient appointments in areas of responsibility; verifying and updating demographics and insurance information when patients check-in for appointments. Coordinates administrative functions relating to emergency and non-emergency transfers to other VA facilities or private hospitals and determines appointment type based on the patient's eligibility status (i.e., TRICARE, sharing agreements, collaterals, research patient, VA employee, etc.).

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. Candidates must demonstrate all of the KSAs below:
i. Ability to operate computerized programs and systems in order to enter, modify, and retrieve sensitive medical and patient identifying information (PII) into or from electronic health records, scheduling systems, and/or reports.
ii. Advanced knowledge of medical terminology specific to understand medical diagnosis and procedures sufficient to communicate clinical staff instructions to patients.
iii. Ability to schedule medical appointments in a clinical setting.
iv. Ability to work independently in the accomplishment of a wide variety of duties performing patient support work.
v. Ability to communicate effectively and professionally in person, electronically, and/or by telephone, with internal and external customers.
vi. Skill in customer service with the ability to identify customer concerns, and refer to the appropriate staff, as necessary, to ensure a satisfactory resolution.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-5. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-5.

Physical Requirements: Work is mostly sedentary. There will be some periods of walking, bending, lifting or carrying of work-related items. Normal safety precautions and practices are required of working in a healthcare environment. This position requires emotional ability to deal effectively with multi-tasking and high volume of patient flow and competing demands.

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 MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

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.

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.

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.