Clarification from the agency

NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this occupational series. For more information, refer to Required Documents below. Internal applicants are encouraged to apply to internal Job Announcement Number CBTF-12822549-26-PE. CRITICAL SHORTAGE LIST: 38 U.S.C. § 7412 waives the requirement to apply Veterans' preference to external applicants for appointments made during the fiscal year to hybrid title 38 occupations among those reported to have the largest staffing shortages.

DUTIES:
The Advanced Medical Support Assistant (AMSA) works collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model for the Medical Administration Service and/or Specialty Clinics.

• The AMSA works independently and is considered chief source of patient information.
• Scheduling appointments in accordance with VHA Directive 1230(3) and VHA Directive 1232(2) including canceling, rescheduling, and no show patient appointments and/or consults.
• Verifies and updates patient demographics to include capturing of insurance data
• Ensures that all patients are identified by photo identification
• Responsible for receiving and routing all Veterans who report to the facility for scheduled and unscheduled examinations and appointments, assuring that the patients are checked-in electronically.
• Responsible for explaining in detail to Veteran about upcoming appointments, ensuring they understand what they must do and where they must go to complete their work-up.
• Ensures clinic assigned staff are appropriately utilizing Recall List, Return to Clinic Orders, Insurance capture buffer report, pre-registration and view Electronic Health Record (EHR) alerts for accurate disposition daily.
• Ensures patients online appointments (VAOS) are review daily and scheduled within 2 business days from time of receipt from the notification manager.
• Ensures patient encounters are given to the Provider or clinical staff by the end of business each day.
• Ensures patient encounters are completed for clinics assigned by the end of each business day (no­ shows and patient cancellations).
• Ensures that consults greater than 30 days have proper documentation for additional scheduling attempts or dispositioning directed by the provider.
• Ensures clinic assigned staff is appropriately using the insurance capture buffer exception list and appropriately utilizing Vet Link for clinics assigned.
• Receives and directs patients and visitors by telephone, answering routine inquiries, and making appropriate referral of questions concerning patients' care.
• Directs patients and families to Decedent Affairs regarding death benefits.
• Directs patients to Beneficiary Travel for transportation support and vouchers as required.
• Directs patients to Eligibility and Enrollment for follow up regarding any eligibility issues.
• Orients and provides on-the-job training for new AMSA employees as required in collaboration with Lead MSA and Supervisory MSA.
• Monitors pre-appointment requirements to ensure readiness for the patient visit; perform administrative follow-up actions; evaluate patient information and clinic schedule list.
• Monitors CTM to review the status of consults, at minimum to include consults greater than 90 days, unscheduled no activity greater than 30 days linked to past appointment, and other status that require administrative/MSA action.
• Document attempts in CTB (consult toolbox).
• Make patients aware of community care wait time.
• Responsible for submitting Patient Tracking form upon request from supervisor.
• Responsible for reviewing and following up on several reports to include Aged Consult report, Community Care Scheduling Timeliness, Recall Reminder report, Return to clinic orders report.
• Discuss opt-in and opt-out with patients.
• Notifies Supervisor when clinic access is less than desirable or if an individual patient cannot be scheduled within mandated clinic timeframes.
• Completes pre-registration call list for patients with future appointments.
• Responsible for other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday - Wednesday and Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm
Telework: Not available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 25563-F
Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Conditions of employment

"Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement."

• 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 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's 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.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• 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.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:

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.).
Experience and Education.
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
Education. One year above high school; OR,
Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable.
Certification. None required.
Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook.
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.

Grade Requirements:
Medical Support Assistant (Advanced), GS-6
Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level. Experience includes but not limited to: Advises clinical staff on current administrative processes, 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 scheduling guidelines, 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, verifying and updating demographics and insurance information.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. Candidates must demonstrate all of the KSAs below:
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 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.
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.

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).
Preferred Experience: Customer service, medical terminology.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-6. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-6.

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.
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.
Part-Time Experience. Part-time experience as an MSA or equivalent administrative patient support in anon-VA medical inpatient or outpatient setting is creditable according to its relationship to the full-time workweek.

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 MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

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.

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.

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

Special Note for Applications: To complete your application, please use the following link https://vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Resume.docx to download the standard Clinical Resume Document. This one-page document does not need to be modified and must be uploaded into the two-page restricted 'Resume' document upload field.

Your full resume/CV may be uploaded without page limitation into the 'Other' document upload field.

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please ensure you have included all documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), etc.

• Cover Letter
• DD-214/ Statement of Service
• Disability Letter (Schedule A)
• Disability Letter (VA)
• License
• Other (1)
• PCS Orders
• Performance Appraisal
• Professional Certification
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-15
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Next steps