Advanced Medical Support Assistant - Primary Care

Veterans Health Administration; Rochester (MN); On-site; USD 52,000 - 76,000; Full time

Job summary

The Advanced Medical Support Assistant in the Primary Care Medicine service line at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System supports administrative and clinical staff to improve access, patient flow, and data validation. This role requires collaboration with a wide range of clinicians and requires strong organization to meet deadlines.

Applicants may be referred if pending education/certification, but cannot be hired until all requirements are met.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Experience may be desired, but no experience is required for entry at the GS-06 level.
• Must meet English language proficiency for written and spoken English.

Responsibilities

• Advise clinical staff on current administrative processes.
• Answer phones, greet patients, relay messages, schedule or cancel appointments and/or consults.
• Enter no-show information and monitor appointment requests from multiple sources.
• Coordinate transfers to VA facilities or private hospitals based on eligibility.
• Participate in huddles to determine daily clinic needs and monitor inpatient/outpatient appointments.

Skills

Collaboration with clinicians

Prioritization & organization

Communication skills

Healthcare process knowledge

Medical terminology knowledge

Education

High School Diploma or GED

VA Qualification Standards familiarity

Job description

This Advanced Medical Support Assistant is in the Primary Care Medicine service line at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. The incumbent plays an integral role in identifying and developing ways to resolve problem with the administrative and clinical staff on access, customer service, patient flow, revenue and data validation issues.

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

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. English: Must be proficient in basic written and spoken English. Education/Experience: Experience. No experience required. Education: Must possess a High School Diploma, General Education Development equivalency certificate, or proficiency certificate from a State or territorial-level Board or Department of Education. Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements, you must meet the grade specific requirement: GS-06: Advanced Experience: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-05 grade level. To be creditable, this experience must be equivalent to the next lower grade level, GS-05, and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with current MSA responsibilities.

Experience at this level includes, but is not limited to:

• Advising clinical staff on current administrative processes.
• Answering phones, greeting patients, relaying messages to appropriate staff inside or outside of the unit, scheduling, canceling, re-scheduling patient appointments and/or consults including interpreting and verifying provider orders in accordance with VHA national scheduling guidelines.
• 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.).

AND Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. Candidates must also 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.

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. Physical Requirements: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination.