Job opening: Medical Support Assistant
Salary: $39 576 - 51 446 per year
Published at: May 31 2024
Employment Type: Full-time
The incumbent serves as a Medical Support Assistant (MSA) in the department of Health Administration Service (HAS) at the El Paso VA Health Care Center.
The incumbent performs duties related to the receipt, intake, and indexing of health and administrative information. The incumbent will interface with personal computer applications as well as numerous operating systems.
THIS IS A MSA FLOAT POSITION. THE MSA WILL NOT BE ASSSIGNED TO A PERMANET CLINIC, BUT WILL COVER SHORTAGES AS NEEDED.
Duties
Total-Rewards-of-an-Allied-Health-VA-Career-Brochure.pdf
Medical Support Assistant: vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Total-Rewards-of-a-MSA-VA-Career-Flyer.pdf
THIS IS A MSA FLOAT POSITION. THE MSA WILL NOT BE ASSSIGNED TO A PERMANET CLINIC, BUT WILL COVER SHORTAGES AS NEEDED.
The MSA functions at the Full Performance level of the position include:
The MSA is responsible for scheduling appointments, including interpreting and verifying provider orders in accordance with VHA national scheduling guidelines. Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: scheduling, canceling, re-scheduling patient's appointments and/or consults; entering no-show information; monitoring the electronic wait list; preparing for clinic visits; monitoring both inpatient and outpatient appointments for areas of responsibility; ensuring encounter forms are completed in order to obtain appropriate workload credit; verifying and updating demographics and insurance information.
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:45pm
Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases
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)
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: Available - as needed
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 000000
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/07/2024
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.
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.
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).
Grade Determinations:
Medical Support Assistant, GS-5
Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-4 grade level (please reference the GS-4 Assignment above for this experience requirement);
OR,
Education. Four years of education above high school.
Assignment. This is the full performance level for MSAs. At this level, the MSA independently performs a full range of duties related to the delivery of healthcare services in an inpatient or outpatient setting. Advises clinical staff on current administrative processes. The MSA is responsible for answering phones, greeting patients, relaying messages to appropriate staff inside or outside of the unit, scheduling appointments, including interpreting and verifying provider orders in accordance with VHA national scheduling guidelines. Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: scheduling, canceling, re-scheduling patient appointments and/or consults; entering no-show information; monitoring appointment requests from multiple electronic sources; participating in huddles with other MSAs and/or clinic staff to determine the daily needs of the clinic, monitoring both inpatient and outpatient appointments in areas of responsibility; verifying and updating demographics and insurance information when patients check-in for appointments. Coordinates administrative functions relating to emergency and non-emergency transfers to other VA facilities or private hospitals [and determines appointment type based on the patient's eligibility status (i.e., TRICARE, sharing agreements, collaterals, research patient, VA employee, etc.).
Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. Candidates must demonstrate all of the KSAs below:
i. Ability to 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.
ii. Advanced knowledge of medical terminology specific to understand medical diagnosis and procedures sufficient to communicate clinical staff instructions to patients.
iii. Ability to schedule medical appointments in a clinical setting.
iv. Ability to work independently in the accomplishment of a wide variety of duties [performing patient support work.
v. Ability to communicate effectively and professionally in person, electronically, and/or by telephone, with internal and external customers.
vi. Skill in customer service with the ability] to identify customer concerns, and refer to the appropriate staff, as necessary, to ensure a satisfactory resolution.
Preferred Experience:
Customer Service with experience in de-escalation
Administrative Knowledge/Attention to detail/Multi-tasking
Medical Terminology including documenting administrative notes in medical charts
Scheduling/rescheduling in a clinical setting including experience reading and verifying provider's orders
Experience with workload reports and data collection (MS Excel)
Demographics update along with third party insurance capture
References: VA Handbook 5005/117, PART II, APPENDIX G45, Dated August 1, 2019
The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-05.
Education
IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.
NOTE: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application.
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/.
Contacts
- Address El Paso VA Clinic
5001 North Piedras Street
El Paso, TX 79930
US
- Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
- Email: [email protected]
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