Medical Support Assistant (Advanced)

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.

Specialized Experience

• Must have at least one (1) full year of experience that is directly related to the duties of a MSA and that equips you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of this position.
• To be creditable, this experience must be equivalent to the next lower grade level, GS-5, 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, and rescheduling 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 patient’s check-in for appointments
• Capturing and processing claims for reimbursement
• Coordinating administrative functions relating to emergency and non-emergency transfers to other VA facilities or private hospitals and determining appointment type based on the patient’s eligibility status (i.e., TRICARE, sharing agreements, collaterals, research patient, VA employee, etc.)
• Communicating with patients and families regarding procedures and care
• Resolving patient concerns

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to collaborate and communicate with a wide range of medical clinicians across multiple disciplines 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, 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 the patient flow and patient support care 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

Physical Requirements

The work is primarily sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items such as papers, books, small parts, or driving an automobile, etc. No special physical demands are required to perform the work.