Medical Support Assistant (Advanced) Care in The Community

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Major duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Provides specialized and expert administrative patient support while working collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model.
• Works closely with clinical personnel to ensure veterans receive timely referred and scheduled care in their local community. This work involves specialized administrative judgment and the flexible use of a wide range of clinical flow processes relating to access to care across all disciplines and specialties through community care. The AMSA recommends changes to existing clinic procedures based on current administrative guidelines. Expertise in utilizing numerous advanced patient systems involved in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model.
• Coordinates veteran appointments through community vendors utilizing guidance and direction from the veterans care team to ensure appointments are scheduled accurately efficiently and within the clinical needs requested by the provider.
• Develop and/or maintain effective and efficient communication with the veteran veteran representatives interdisciplinary care teams VA medical centers and other agencies (e.g. coordinating community care appointments and additional requests for care with non-VA medical facilities administratively triaging phone calls related to community care requests assisting other VA teams in understanding community care eligibilities in regards to the Mission Act of 2018 assisting CITC RN in care coordination of referrals following up with community vendors to ensure appointment completion and obtaining of medical records).
• Processes incoming veteran messages through message manager and care requests through my healthy vet and coordinates with care team as appropriate; participates in team huddles and team meetings to manage plan problem solve and follow up with patient care by sharing information and collaborating with interdisciplinary team; setting priorities and deadlines adjusting the flow and sequencing of the work to meet team and patient needs; enters appropriate information into the electronic record; manages patient systems to verify and validate accuracy and resolve issues; evaluates and triages scheduling to meet recommendations by clinician in regards to urgency of the referrals.
• Responsible for scheduling appointments including interpreting and verifying provider orders in accordance with Community Care processes guidelines and directives. Independently recognizes the urgency of the consults and schedules care in accordance. Assignments include but are not limited to: scheduling rescheduling patient consults and monitoring processes related to Community Care. Accurately schedules the full spectrum of medical care including but is not limited to outpatient appointments outpatient procedures inpatient surgery home care lab tests and imaging throughout all specialties. Communicate to the veteran any pre-appointment requirements or instructions. Clearly communicates appointment care details to the veteran or point of contact for veteran. Communicates to the PACT Provider or Nurse if instructions are of nature that clinical review is required to determine appropriateness for the veteran. Identify and communicate veteran concerns or needs recognized during communications regarding upcoming Community Care.
• Provides follow up calls to veterans when it is identified that an appointment was not attended. Incumbent assists veterans in rescheduling appointments in cases of missed or no-show appointments.

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 ( Effective May 7 2025 drivers 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.

• 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.

Qualifications

***KSA Recommendation - All qualifying experience you possess must be clearly described in your application package. We will not make assumptions when reviewing applications. Failure to demonstrate your experience and knowledge skills and abilities (KSAs) in your application may result in disqualification. It is strongly recommended that you write to each KSA (found below) to demonstrate how you have gained each one in your application package or on a supplemental document***

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.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

a. 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.).

b. Experience and Education.

(1) 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

(2) Education. One year above high school;

OR

(3) Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable.

c. Certification. None required.
d. 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.
e. 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.
f. Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.
g. 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.

GS-06 Advanced Medical Support Assistant: This GS-6 Advanced Medical Support Assistant position is above the full performance level for this job series and requires experience beyond the basic requirement for positions in this occupation.

EXPERIENCE:

One year of experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level that equips the candidate with the following:
1. 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.
2. Schedule medical appointments in a clinical setting.
3. Work independently in the accomplishment of a wide variety of duties performing patient support work.
4. Communicate effectively and professionally in person electronically and/or by telephone with internal and external customers.
5. Customer service with the ability to identify customer concerns and refer to the appropriate staff as necessary to ensure a satisfactory resolution.

AND

Candidates must be able to demonstrate all of the knowledge skills and abilities below:
1. 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.
2. Ability to independently set priorities and organizes work to meet deadlines ensuring compliance with established processes policies and regulations.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard please visit full performance level of this vacancy is GS06.

Physical Requirements: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination.