Medical Support Assistant

About the role

This job is open to current permanent employees of the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, VA Oklahoma City Health Care System, Federal Employees, and all U.S. Citizens.

Responsibilities

Performs duties related to the receipt, intake and indexing of health and administrative information. MSA's will interface with personal computer applications as well as numerous Vista applications. The MSA is responsible for scheduling appointments, including interpreting and verifying provider orders in accordance with VHA national scheduling guidelines. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below. This job is open to current permanent employees of the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, VA Oklahoma City Health Care System, Federal Employees, and all U.S. Citizens. Incumbent is responsible for providing advisory and technical assistance to Veterans and beneficiaries who come to the medical center seeking medical care, experiencing problems or requesting information. The incumbent is also responsible for coordinating all administrative activity in the immediate area and to provide support and assistance to the professional staff. The duties of a Medical Support Assistant may include, but are not limited to: - First line customer service representative. Greet and provide guidance to stakeholders at the outpatient clinics and hospital. - Medical Support Assistant is responsible for the processing of hospital admissions, clinic appointments, registration of patients entering workload data and validation. - Assists with managing consults, recall reminders, view alerts, mod sheets and encounters for assigned specialty clinics. Performs duties to capture increase through Insurance Capture Buffer (ICB), Patient Check-IN (PCI), Consult Toolbox, Consult Tracking Manager (CTM+), My HealtheVet (in-person authentication/secure messaging), patient updates and demographic changes. Ensure all consults are resolved within seven days and encounters are resolved daily. Each section will be responsible for providing guidance on scheduling within their section. - On a weekly basis, summarizes the most frequent problems within the immediate area. - Assists both the Veteran and appropriate professional staff in coordinating scheduled procedures and return appointments. - Schedules appointments and provides information regarding unit, clinic and hospital policies, procedures and locations to patients, family members, staff, etc., or refers to other resources for difficult questions or concerns. Maintains and monitors patient appointment schedules for the unit/clinic and communicates delays in scheduled appointments to the appropriate staff and patients. - Monitor both clinic and operating room utilization. Make necessary adjustments to support the needs of the clinic. Schedule, cancel and reschedule a great variety of exams and procedures. Facilitate the scheduling of procedures and testing performed by other services. Contact next day appointments and no-shows. Oversee the daily processing of patients for inpatient and outpatient appointment and procedures. Review audio reminder cancellation and reschedule reports. - Provide a detailed daily report to the Medical Administration Service leadership to include missed opportunities, consults, encounters, unsigned notes and orders and any other clinic issues that arise. - Perform administrative follow-up actions - Participate in team meetings to manage and plan patient care. Independently share information and collaborate with the medical team to assure continuity of care. Set priorities and deadlines. Estimate and report on expected milestones for completion of tasks. Communicate team success in performance goals and report progress to the supervisor. - Monitor the status on progress of work and make adjustments in accordance with established priorities. Obtain assistance from their supervisors as needed for major issues or problems that arise. - Safeguard sensitive information against unauthorized disclosures

Requirements

Medical Support Assistant, GS-3 Experience or Education.None beyond the basic requirements. Medical Support Assistant, GS-4 Experience. One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade (Applying general rules and policies relating to clinic functions, staff, and automated data processing methods in support of treatment to patients; utilize a variety of patient data systems in scheduling patients for treatment and annotate patient records; perform front desk duties, receive telephone call, and visitors to the unit; make and cancel appointments, review patient records for necessary information, and review patient demographics and insurance verification; consult with clinic staff when processing physician scheduling and administrative orders.); OR Education. One year of education above high school. AND Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to the experience [or education] above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: - Knowledge of basic medical terminology to assist in the provision of care to patients. - Skill in recording patient messages and understanding physician requests pertaining to follow-up medical care in internal or external clinics. - Ability to meet, communicate, and interact with individuals from varying backgrounds and other health care team members in a courteous and helpful manner in order to facilitate medical care for patients. - Ability to use, and navigate between, various types of office automation equipment and software (i.e., computer systems, web-based scheduling programs; insurance collection system; scanning software, multiple line phone systems; electronic faxing programs) to support patient care. Medical Support Assistant, GS-5 Experience. One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade: (Scheduling and rescheduling patients for treatment; interviewing patients for appointments; referring patients to other medical specialty clinics; providing in