Medical Support Assistant

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Lewiston (ME); On-site; USD 43,000 - 54,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Parental leave

Federal retirement benefits

Job summary

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Lewiston, ME, seeks a Medical Support Assistant (MSA) to perform a full range of administrative duties in Primary Care at the CBOC.

The role supports scheduling, patient check-in, and data entry in the VA electronic health records system across outpatient and inpatient settings.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED or proficiency certificate.
• English proficiency for spoken and written communication.
• KSAs demonstrating medical terminology and patient communication.

Responsibilities

• Provide administrative support to improve scheduling and communication across services.
• Answer phones, greet patients, and relay messages per privacy rules.
• Enter and retrieve patient information in electronic health records (EHR) systems.
• Schedule and manage patient appointments, including rescheduling and no-shows.
• Assist with enrollment and patient data updates, ensuring accuracy and timeliness.

Skills

Medical terminology

Customer service

Electronic health records

Scheduling

Communication skills

Education

High school diploma or GED

Tools

VISTA

HealtheVet

VISTA Imaging

Job description

Summary

This Medical Support Assistant (MSA) position is in Primary Care at the Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) in Lewiston Maine. This position is full time 40 hours per week.

Summary

This Medical Support Assistant (MSA) position is in Primary Care at the Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) in Lewiston Maine. This position is full time 40 hours per week.

Qualifications

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
• Education: High school diploma - General Education Development equivalency certificate - or proficiency certificate from a State or territorial-level Board or Department of Education
• English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with 38 U.S.C.
• 7403(f) Grade Determinations: Medical Support Assistant GS-5: Experience: One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade
• OR - Education: Two years of education above high school
• Knowledge - Skills - and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience or education above - the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: Advanced knowledge of medical terminology specific to understand medical diagnosis and procedures sufficient to communicate clinical staff instructions to patients
• Skill in customer service with the ability to identify customer concerns - and refer to the appropriate staff - as necessary - to ensure a satisfactory resolution
• 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
• Ability to schedule medical appointments in a clinical setting
• Ability to work independently in the accomplishment of a wide variety of duties performing patient support work
• Ability to communicate effectively and professionally in person - electronically - and/or by telephone - with internal and external customers
• 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 health care 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 - and 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.)
• 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-5. Physical Requirements: See VA Handbook 5019

Duties

• The Medical Support Assistant is responsible for a wide range of assignments and provides administrative support to increase scheduling and communication integrity across all services
• Work is performed collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model
• Duties may include - but are not limited to: Collects and updates insurance information from Veterans - family members and other eligible patients
• Prepares correspondence and memos as needed
• Screens/receive phone calls in a courteous and timely manner - determine the nature of request and provide the information desired using privacy rules and established clinic processes
• Ensures data is entered into VISTA accurately and scans documents into VISTA Imaging within 24 hours of entering the data into VISTA if applicable
• Promotes Veteran registration for and utilization of HealtheVet (MHV)
• Stocks basic office supplies for the clinical area
• Enters Veterans seeking emergent/urgent care - scheduling appointments accurately
• Utilizes call lists and telephones Veterans to pre-register them before their scheduled visits
• Incumbent updates all patient demographics
• Communicates and interacts with patients in a manner which is appropriate to cognitive - emotional - and chronological maturation needs of the adult and/or geriatric patient
• Assures that all appropriate VA forms are used correctly - and regulations followed
• Additional duties or tasks may be assigned by the supervisor to ensure efficient daily operations
• Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional
• Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm
• Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized
• Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized
• Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases
• When setting pay - a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade)
• 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)
• Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual - based on prior [work experience] or military service experience
• 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 #: F01390
• Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
• Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
• Notifications: This position is in the Excepted Service
• This position is an AFGE Bargaining Unit position
• This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay
• Narrative responses to the KSAs may be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment
• Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50 - (Notice of Personnel Action)
• SF-50s must identify the position title - series - grade - step - tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted)
• In some cases - more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held
• Due to a critical staffing shortage - 38 U.S.C.
• 7412 waives the requirement to apply Veterans' preference for this job announcement.