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Medical Support Assistant (Advanced) - Urgent Care

Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Veterans Health Administration
This job announcement has closed

Summary

Serves as an Medical Support Assistant (Advanced) in the Urgent Care Section within the Medical Service of the VA Northern California Health Care System. Incumbent monitors the status and progress of work, and makes day-to-day adjustments in accordance with established priorities, obtaining assistance from the supervisor on problems that may arise. Provides information via telephone and in person to the general public, members of the professional staff, civilian, and military personnel.

Overview

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Reviewing applications
Open & closing dates
07/08/2025 to 07/12/2025
This job will close when we have received 25 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$59,754 to - $77,676 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 6
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Martinez, CA
1 vacancy
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy. Ad-hoc Telework Available Only.
Travel Required
Not required
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Excepted
Promotion potential
None
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Financial disclosure
No
Bargaining unit status
Yes
Announcement number
CBSW-12759715-25-RJ
Control number
840292100

Videos

Duties

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VA Careers - Medical Support Assistant: https://youtube.com/embed/EE9c4XkaELo

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Major Duties include but are not limited to the following:

  • Works collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model.
  • Coordinates with the Care team to review clinic utilization using various reports, ensures that the clinic setup is closely monitored to effectively support the needs of the clinic, and makes necessary adjustments.
  • Collaborates, communicates, sets priorities, and organizes work with the Care Team in order to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations.
  • Participates in team huddles and team meetings to manage and plan patient care: sets priorities and deadlines, adjusts the flow and sequence of work to meet team and patient needs: works with the team to reinforce the plan of care and self-help solutions.
  • Enters, manipulates, and retrieves information and data from the Vista and other clinical information systems as appropriate to area assigned.
  • Completes mini registration and chart compilation. Complete requested forms, manually or using automated systems, for individual patient orders for blood work, X-rays, radiation therapy, respiratory or ventilated care consults and other requests as required.
  • Schedules and coordinates appointments for patients with various clinics, ensuring all treatment requested by the physician has been scheduled, and rescheduling appointments when necessary.
  • Coordinates the scheduling to avoid conflicts in different clinic schedules.
  • Responsible for ensuring calls received or made by staff are professional, courteous, and tactful in nature, and that responses given are appropriate. Incumbent will be responsible for developing, maintaining and monitoring standards for appropriate responses to patient requests for assistance.
  • Ensures staff is knowledgeable of the services provided and are prepared to furnish information such as, telephone numbers, locations of offices and personnel and clinic hours of operation.
  • Receives patients via telephone calls and visitors to clinics, as the initial point of contact, ascertaining the nature of the call or visit, obtaining identifying information, and determining the nature and urgency of the patient's request.
  • Responsible for the clerical duties inherent in the admission, care and discharge of inpatients or the in-processing, care and out-processing, of outpatients and guests.
  • Notifies appropriate staff of the patient's arrival, reconciles end-of-shift/end-of-day processing and reports.
  • Maintains all patients' records, either electronic or paper, according to regulation ensuring each entry contains proper patient and health care proper identification.
  • Correctly files original medical documentation in the patient record and copies of medical documentation into research files as necessary.

Work Schedule: Full-Time; Monday to Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm
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; Does not apply to current federal employees)
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 creditable 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 Telework Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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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 trial 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:

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

2. English Language Proficiency: Medical Support Assistants must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, paragraph 3.j.

3. 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; OR
  • Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable.

Grandfathering Provision: 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).

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.

Grade Determinations:

Medical Support Assistant (Advanced), GS-6
  • Experience: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level.
  • Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Candidates must demonstrate all of the KSAs below:
    • Ability to collaborate and communicate with a wide range of medical clinicians across multiple disciplines (e.g. medical doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, clinical pharmacists, and nursing staff) to accomplish team goal setting to ensure medical care to patients is met.
    • Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations.
    • Ability to communicate tactfully and effectively, electronically, by phone, in person, and in writing, with internal and external customers. This may include preparing reports in various formats and presenting data to various organizational levels, as well as resolving patient concerns.
    • Advanced knowledge of the technical health care process (including, but not limited to, scheduling across interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community models and patient health care portals) as it relates to access to care.
    • Advanced knowledge of policies and procedures associated with interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community operational activities that affect patient flow, and patient support care administrative functions to include, but not limited to appointment cycles, outside patient referrals, follow-up care, overbooking, provider availability, etc.
    • Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians.
Preferred Experience: Experience in providing high level administrative support to physicians, as a TMS administrator and timekeeper, independently tracking projects, customer service, and advance user of the MS Office suite.


Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. FORMER VA HANDBOOK REFERENCE: PART II, APPENDIX G45, EFFECTIVE DATE: August 1, 2019

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-6. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-6.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.

Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

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.

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