Clarification from the agency

This vacancy announcement is only open to current, permanent employees assigned to the Cheyenne VA Medical Center.

Videos

• Meet the needs of customers (veterans, representatives, visitors, and VA staff) while supporting VA missions.
• Respond to patient inquiries concerning medical, personal, and administrative matters, referring medical questions to clinical staff.
• Serves as a subject matter expert on scheduling policies and clinical flow processes, ensuring that Advanced Medical Support Assistants (AMSAs) adhere to VHA National Scheduling Guidelines.
• Ensure timely and accurate scheduling of patient appointments, including coordinating complex, nonstandard procedures related to access to care across multiple clinics and care in the community.
• Review clinic appointment availability regularly and make adjustments to optimize patient flow, increasing access to care and reducing delays.
• Provide guidance to AMSAs on scheduling policy and procedure changes and ensure all staff comply with updated protocols.
• Lead interdisciplinary team huddles and meetings to review scheduling practices, discuss patient care needs, and resolve workload issues.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary staff to ensure scheduling practices align with VA policies and meet patient needs.
• Provide leadership in managing patient systems, ensuring the accuracy of scheduling data and the timely completion of appointments and consults.
• Act as a point of contact for patients receiving care at multiple VA facilities or in the community, coordinating their care plans with the broader care team.
• Assist the clinic with complex administrative procedures, including coordinating clinical flow processes for patient access to care across various clinics and community resources.
• Serve as the primary liaison between AMSA staff, patients, and interdisciplinary team members to resolve day-to-day conflicts.
• Provide guidance and problem-solving assistance to staff in handling patient issues, appointment scheduling conflicts, and administrative challenges.
• Facilitate communication between AMSAs, patients, and clinical staff to ensure the timely resolution of issues that impact patient care.
• Coordinate daily workload assignments, assign tasks, ensure appropriate staffing coverage, and set break schedules.
• Organize and maintain employee work and break schedules, adjusting workflow priorities to meet team and patient needs.
• Ensure the distribution and balance of workloads, following up on pending administrative issues, and resolving incomplete work across multiple clinics.
• Provide guidance on changes in policies and procedures to staff, ensuring compliance with new regulations.
• Conduct weekly reviews of all scheduling data to ensure compliance with scheduling directives and guidelines.
• Provide feedback and recommendations to improve scheduling efficiency, reduce delays, and address urgent scheduling requirements.
• Evaluate the training needs of AMSAs and develop training plans to address identified gaps.
• Lead and deliver training sessions on key administrative processes, patient management systems, and new scheduling policies..
• Collaborate with supervisors to monitor trainees' progress and provide feedback to improve performance.
• Ensure that all training records are current and that AMSAs receive the necessary training to perform their duties effectively.

VA Careers - Lead Medical Support Assistant: https://youtube.com/embed/UJO_XH5uCLs
Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm or as agreed upon with the possibility of extended hours and weekends.
Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).
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: Ad-Hoc
Functional Statement #: 51654-A
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.
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• 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).

Qualifications

Basic Requirements

• Citizenship: Citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, paragraph 3.g.).
• Experience and Education:
  • Experience. Six months experience of clerical, office, customer service, or other administrative work that indicates the ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position; OR,
  • Education. One year above high school; (A transcript must be submitted with your application if you basing all or part of your qualifications on education) OR,
  • Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable.
• English Language Proficiency: MSAs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, paragraph 3.j.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grandfathering Provision. All MSAs employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard (August 1, 2019) 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.

Grade Requirements

Creditable Experience

• 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.
• 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.

Grade Determinations

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

Lead Medical Assistant, GS-7

• Experience: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-6 grade level.

• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: At this level, candidates must also demonstrate all of the following KSAs:
• • Advanced knowledge of medical terminology and a wide range of clinical flow processes relating to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources.
  • Ability to utilize numerous advanced patient systems in support of multiple clinics in an interdisciplinary setting.
  • Ability to organize work, set priorities, and delegate tasks/responsibilities in order to meet deadlines.
  • Skill in communicating with individuals to obtain the desired effect and coordinating with a variety of interdisciplinary care team staff.
  • Ability to provide staff development and training.
  • Ability to manage staffing requirements, manage workflow priorities, and adjust the flow of work to meet team and patient needs. This includes the ability to follow-up on pending issues and demonstrate an understanding of the impact of incomplete work across multiple clinics.

Lead Medical Assistant (GS-7) Assignment: The Lead MSA is responsible for the coordination of Advanced MSA assignments and workflow found in an interdisciplinary unit. The Lead MSA is responsible for daily workload assessments, assigning work, and assuring proper staffing coverage; evaluating training records; and determining training needs of MSAs to provide support across interdisciplinary settings. The Lead assists the unit with complex and non-standard procedures, including clinical flow processes related to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources. Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: ensuring accurate and timely scheduling of appointments; providing guidance to staff members, to include changes in policies and procedures; creating and maintaining employee work schedules; and acting as a liaison among Advanced MSA staff, patients, and other interdisciplinary staff to resolve day-to-day conflicts. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

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-7.

Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. While working in the clinic, physical demands include walking, getting up and down from sitting to retrieve various items and carrying items such as papers, folders, belongings, etc. Crouching and bending are required to file documents and attend to supply needs. Although constant demands, such as continually ringing telephones and continual work interruptions by staff and patients, sometimes make it very difficult for the medical support assistant to leave the work area for even a short period of time. No special physical demands are required to perform the work.

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.