Clarification from the agency

This position is open to current, permanent Veterans Health Administration employees ONLY and individuals eligible under Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) ONLY.

Major Duties:

• Planning, direction, integration, and evaluation of all Business Office functions that support inpatient care delivery across the Health Care System.
• Providing Veteran-centered administrative and operational support and leading section chiefs and managers to ensure seamless, across the continuum of care.
• Emphasizing inpatient flow management, coordination of admissions, discharges, and transfers, and ensuring timely and accurate patient administration in compliance with VHA directives.
• Must be available for rotating shifts, weekends, and holidays, given inpatient service requirements, and serving as Acting Chief, Business Officer in the Chiefs absence.
• Providing operational direction, policy development, and program oversight to strengthen the quality, access, and efficiency of inpatient and outpatient care delivery.
• Serving as a principal advisor to the Chief, Business Officer and other executive leaders on inpatient business operations, access, and resource utilization.
• Providing a high degree of independence, sound judgment, and the ability to interpret and implement complex VHA policies in a manner that supports high reliability, stewardship of resources, and equity in access for all enrolled Veterans.
• Meeting mission requirements, may be required to adjust tours, including coverage during evenings, weekends, and holidays, to ensure continuity of critical inpatients business functions in support of Veteran care.
• Providing program level leadership for inpatient enrollment, eligibility, and benefits activities, ensuring that policies, procedures, and workflows consistently support accurate and timely eligibility determinations for admitted Veterans, including complex categories such as Other Than Honorable discharges, Military Sexual Trauma, and other special eligibility programs.
• Overseeing the design, implementation, and monitoring of processes that prevent, detect, and correct Business Office-related encounter and eligibility errors affecting inpatients, including development of performance metrics, routine trend analysis, and targeted staff education.
• Providing strategic oversight of inpatient administrative operations, including bed control, bed assignments and transfers, bed change letters, and ward administration, to ensure standardized process accuracy, real time tracking of patient location and status throughout hospitalization.
• Developing and monitoring program goals, performance indicators, and standard operating procedures related to admissions, transfers, and discharges, working closely with Nursing, Medicine, Mental Health, Social Work, and other services to optimize patient flow and minimize avoidable delays.
• Coordinating with Fiscal Service at the program level to maintain robust processes for Patient Funds and Agent Cashier activities, ensuring appropriate internal controls, reconciliation practices, and compliance with VA policy for all admitted patients.
• Overseeing the inpatient travel and transportation program as it relates to admitted and discharged Veterans, including establishment of policies and workflows for Beneficiary Travel eligibility determinations, authorization and documentation of approved travel.
• Ensuring that procedures governing interfacility transfers, specialty care travel, and discharge transportation are current, standardized across units, clearly communicated to staff, and routinely evaluated for effectiveness and compliance.
• Developing and maintaining monitoring systems and dashboards to track adherence to regulations for inpatient travel and transportation benefits, including timeliness, documentation completeness, and authorization accuracy, and uses findings to drive quality improvement initiatives.
• Monitors inpatient administrative workflows and travel/transportation processes across the medical center to ensure alignment with VA and VHA directives, identifying system level barriers and leading multidisciplinary efforts to improve efficiency, reduce delays, and enhance the overall Veteran experience.
• Exercising delegated authority to oversee the overall planning, direction and timely execution of a program, several program segments or comparable staff function, including development, assignments, and higher-level clearance of goals and objectives for supervisors or managers of subordinate organizational units or lower organizational levels.
• Evaluating subordinate supervisors or leaders and serving as the senior rater on evaluations of non-supervisory employees rated by subordinate supervisors.
• Reviewing and approving serious disciplinary actions involving non-supervisory subordinates.
• Performing other duties as assigned.

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
• 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 identification 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)

• 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

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/01/2026.

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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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.

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: 1)overseeing the full range of human resources and program requirements; 2)provides input in regards to the budgeting, contracting and financial management; 3)exercise responsibility for recommendations for budget formulation, presentation and execution of programs under area of responsibility; 4)interprets administrative policies, implementing local polices defining administrative requirements and/or providing recommendations to Management.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Administration and Management
• Analytical Thinking
• Leadership
• Organizational Awareness
• Problem Solving

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 WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

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.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the 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.

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

• Cover Letter
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

• Most recent SF-50 if you are a current or former Federal employee
• An SF-50 showing 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
• Award 50's do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
• Examples of appropriate SF-50's include:
  • Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or
  • Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or
  • SF-50's at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old.

Next steps