As Health Benefits Assistant for the Health Administration Service (HAS) at the New Mexico VAMC (NMVAMC), the incumbent provides a high level of administrative and data support to the HAS to include the Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) as well as to the NMVAMC. The primary function of this position is to make eligibility determinations for VA healthcare which requires an extensive knowledge of VA laws, directives, policies and procedures.

Duties

The Health Benefits Assistant will serve as advisor and expert to the HAS Section Chiefs and support the management information components of all health eligibility related programs. This includes not only entering data and information when necessary, but also reviewing reports, records and statistical computations for accuracy and propriety. Local input is compared with the Health Eligibility Center (HEC) in Atlanta, GA and also will affect data entry for encounter entries that go to Austin for workload credit. The incumbent(s) must review the Incomplete Encounter Management Module (IEMM) report in order to clean up any discrepancies in administrative data that would prevent the transmission of encounters. Reviews, verifies, and analyzes data submitted for consistency with financial and program objectives, and adherence to VA directives. Responsibilities of the incumbent(s) include management analyst, training and organizational development. Incumbent(s) will be involved in an extremely complex blend of computing technology, medical information, communication skills and leadership qualities in a rapidly changing environment. The Veterans Health Information & Technology Architecture (VistA) is one of the largest of its kind and breaks many barriers in the areas of public domain software, language standardization, and decentralization of ADP within the VA. He/she must possess vast computer knowledge in creating and capturing data. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am to 4:30 pm work schedule. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Benefits Assistant/PD13111A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/01/2023. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-05 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-04 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Providing customer service to patients/veterans; performing clerical and technical work related to medical records and benefits; performing routine administrative procedures; establishing and maintaining filing and reference systems; utilization of office automation software and establishing priorities and setting deadlines; dealing with patient administration, computer systems, scanning documents, and reports. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 4 years above high school. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education. For GS-5 level positions only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. One full academic year of study (30 semester hours) beyond the second year is equivalent to 6 months of specialized experience. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)Medical InformationTechnical Competence 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. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: This is primarily a sedentary position, but the work requires some walking, bending, stooping and carrying of light objects such as manuals, documents, etc. Concentration and sustained performance under prolonged stress is required because of the time factors involved in completion of work assignments within deadlines. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on 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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address Raymond G Murphy Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 1501 San Pedro Drive, Southeast Albuquerque, NM 87108 US
• Name: Francisco Olmedo
• Phone: (562) 256-2012
• Email: [email protected]