Advanced Medical Support Assistant

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Hamilton (NJ); On-site; USD 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is hiring an Advanced Medical Support Assistant (AMSA) to support Veterans in managing outpatient appointments and facilitate care through various administrative tasks. The role requires advanced knowledge of healthcare processes, collaboration with medical staff, and ensuring compliance with established protocols.

Benefits

37-50 days of annual paid time off

Paid parental leave

Childcare subsidy eligibility

Traditional federal pension

Federal health and dental insurance

Qualifications

• 6 months experience in clerical, office, or customer service.
• Understanding of HIPAA requirements.
• Basic knowledge of medical terminology.

Responsibilities

• Assist Veterans in managing outpatient appointments.
• Use electronic medical records and scheduling systems.
• Coordinate with interdisciplinary teams for patient care.

Skills

Communication

Interpersonal Skills

Organization

Customer Service

Education

One year above high school

Job description

The NJ VAHCS is hiring for an Advanced Medical Support Assistant (AMSA) position at the Hamilton VA Clinic. The AMSA is responsible for assisting Veterans by providing a smooth process for the management of outpatient appointments. AMSAs perform support work in connection with the care and treatment given to the Veterans throughout the scheduling process. Additionally, AMSA's perform a variety of support duties that facilitate the work of an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model.
Duties

The Advanced Medical Support Assistants are established to ensure assistance for Veterans to maneuver through the medical system, providing support in managing his/her outpatient appointments as well as support work in connection with their care. The AMSA's have advanced knowledge of the technical health care process as it relates to access to care and clinic management, and will assist with the treatment given to the Veterans by performing a variety of support duties that facilitate the work of an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model (e.g. PACT). The incumbents utilize computerized programs and databases in order to enter, modify, and retrieve sensitive information and various data into or from electronic medical records, scheduling systems, and/or reporting formats. Maintains patient confidentiality with written and verbal information, per HIPAA requirements.

The Advanced MSAs will review the clinics appointment schedule to ensure that clinic utilization is optimized and effectively supports the needs of the clinics as well as the needs of the Veterans. The incumbents develop and maintain effective and efficient communication with the patient, interdisciplinary team, VA medical centers, and other agencies.

Duties will vary slightly depending on the section the Advanced Medical Support Assistant is assigned to but in general at the GS-06 level incumbents are expected to perform the following duties: facilitate/process secure messaging with the patient and team, notify patients of normal lab results by mailing lab letter, develop and manage a tracking system for follow up care such as consults, tests, etc. Monitoring pre-appointment requirements to assure readiness for patient visit/procedure (e.g., X-ray, lab work, ekg).Work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model (i.e., patient aligned care team, or other specialty care setting where the patient aligned care team model is used such as PCMHI, Nutrition, Pharm D, Social Work, etc.). Coordinate with the patient care team to review the clinic utilization by using various reports (e.g., Clinic Utilization Statistical Summary). Ensure that the clinic setup is closely monitored to effectively support the needs of the clinic, and make any necessary adjustments etc. Coordinate with their PACT during schedule scrub activities, arranging with supervisor clinic cancellation, blocking, and rescheduling. Review open encounters daily and coordinate with PACT to ensure timely closure of clinic appointments, scan Non-VA medical documentation, review (ICB) insurance capture buffer daily, address (RTC) return to clinic orders daily, assist team with virtual appointment management.

AMSA performs other duties as assigned.

VA Careers - Medical Support Assistant: https://youtube.com/embed/EE9c4XkaELo

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Medical Support Assistant: vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Total-Rewards-of-a-MSA-VA-Career-Flyer.pdf

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm
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: Not Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 21X72-A

Requirements

Qualifications
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.
  • 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.

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:
Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level performing duties including but not limited to: Independently perform a full range of duties related to the delivery of healthcare services in an inpatient or outpatient setting; 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
AND
Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. Candidates must demonstrate all of the KSAs below:

• 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.
• Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians.

Preferred Experience: Some college and past clerical experience preferred.

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.

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-06 which is the actual grade an applicant may be selected for.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.