The Advanced Medical Support Assistant (Advanced MSA) is assigned to the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System, Community Care Service to perform a full range of duties related to eligibility, preferences, scheduling, provider interaction, and customer service.

Duties

Community Care Service is committed to the delivery of accessible, efficient, cost-effective, value-based, high-quality care. The Community Care Program serves eligible Veteran populations through community providers in a variety of patient care settings such as emergent, inpatient, outpatient, and extended care. The primary function of the Advanced MSA is to support the consult teams, by using an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model. The Advanced MSA uses advanced interpersonal skills in order to effectively understand patient's needs, assess possible courses of action and take appropriate measures to ensure patient satisfaction. Advanced MSA works closely with CC Nurses and other clinical providers to ensure patients' health needs are met. The Advanced MSA maintains appointment schedules for CC, communicates with CC providers to ensure they accept VA patients and payments, prepares any required pre-appointment documents, schedules the appropriate level of care and documents the schedule in the appropriate consult. Obtains medical documentation from community providers, scans to appropriate consult within the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) and alerts VA providers for continuity of care. The Advanced MSA works collaboratively with the CC Nurses, Specialty Care teams, and Facility staff for all patient coordination of care issues. The Advanced MSA is considered part of the CC team and functions fully as a CC team member. It is a complex role requiring a global understanding of VA policies, independent decision-making, and multidisciplinary collaboration. The Advanced MSA shall demonstrate exceptional interpersonal communication skills and work collaboratively with medical center programs, services and multidisciplinary team members in providing accessibility to care and in meeting patient care needs, both clinical and administrative. The Advanced MSA schedules Veteran appointments with community providers using Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS)/ VA Information System Technology Architecture (VistA) or other software scheduling options. Uses established business rules to schedule appointment for Veterans which includes clinic visits, consultations, or ordered testing. The Advanced MSA complies with the mandatory training requirements for the outpatient scheduling processes. The Advanced MSA ensures all appointments are scheduled timely and the provider and patient's desired dates and preferences are met. The Advanced MSA must utilize a global knowledge base to provide timely and appropriate telephone caller referral and/or problem resolution. The Advanced MSA serves as the coordinator of incoming telephone calls, receiving a wide range of inquiries, utilizing administrative systems knowledge to identify patient/caller needs, practicing independent decision-making, coordinating care needs, assist in scheduling appointments and directing problem resolution as appropriate. The Advanced MSA will handle each call independently. Duties include but are not limited to: determining the nature of the call and assisting with communicating needs, referring the call to the appropriate clinical or administrative personnel, utilizing computer technology to ensure continuity of care through accurate patient information, communication, and documentation. Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: prioritizing calls and making decisions based on caller needs: handing off calls to the CC Nurses for patients/callers that potentially have an emergent or urgent care need, resolving or referring for resolution non-urgent CC needs to their Supervisor or Team Lead. Acting as patient advocate, the employee attempts to resolve patient needs to the best of their ability within their designated role. The knowledge base will include the ability to actively read and understand the needs of the Veteran or provider about their authorization process through CPRS, HealthShare Referral Manager (HSRM), and Provider Profile Management System (PPMS), and to educate callers regarding the CC authorization process. The assistance will include but is not limited to eligibility, preferences, and scheduling support. The Advanced MSA will send notifications regarding complex issues or questions to appropriate team staff requesting call back to patient(s). Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm or as determined by supervisor. Compressed/Flexible: at discretion of supervisor Telework: Yes, may be telework eligible after 90 days. Remote/virtual: No Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/22/2023. 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. English Language Proficiency: Advanced Medical Support Assistants must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Policy. 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. 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). Grade Determinations: For GS-06 In addition to the basic requirements you must demonstrate that you possess one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade level (GS-05). Preferred Experience: Experience gained while working in a medical office, hospital, inpatient/outpatient clinic, Ancillary Service, Call Center, Care of Community Care, Consult Scheduling, Direct Scheduling, Interdisciplinary Coordinated Care Delivery Models, PACT TEAMLETS, Patient Systems, Radiology/Imaging/Nuclear Medicine, Specialty Clinics, Veterans Appointment Request, VistA Scheduling Graphical User Interface (VS GUI), Ward . Applying administrative judgment, the use of wide range of clinical flow processes relating to access to care across multiple clinical, specialties. Recommends changes to existing clinic procedures based on current guidelines. You will be rated on the following Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities based on your application for this position: Please make sure that each is addressed in detail in the body of your resume. I. 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. II. Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations. III. 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. IV. Advanced knowledge of the technical healthcare process including, but not limited to, scheduling across interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community models and patient healthcare portals as it relates to access to care. V. 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. VI. Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians. References: VA Handbook 5005, PART II, APPENDIX G45 Medical Support Assistant VA Qualification Standards. Can be found in the local Human Resources Office. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-06. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-06. Physical Requirements: This is primarily a sedentary position. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019

Education

There is no education substitution at this grade level.

Contacts

• Address VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System 975 Kirman Avenue Reno, NV 89502 US
• Name: Brittany Strite
• Phone: 3045797687
• Email: [email protected]