Transportation Assistant

About the role

This position is located in the Veteran Transportation Service (VTS) within the Patient Administrative Service at the Oscar G. Johnson VAMC - Iron Mountain - MI - a Complexity Level 3 VHA facility. The primary purpose of the position is transportation work load forecasting - scheduling design - procedure development - and quality improvement implementation - modification of processes - evaluation and ongoing operational flow of the VTS program.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a primary contact for Veterans, doctors, nurses and administrative staff to arrange travel for eligible Veterans to appointments and residence when appropriate
• Use laws and regulations to distinguish/ensure reimbursements are legitimate or if fraudulent activity is being conducted by the beneficiary
• Correctly determining eligibility for the program, and processing requests
• Correctly determining which of several fund control points to utilize, entering authorizations, maintaining manual and electronic accounting records, performing regular reconciliations and adjusting account balances
• Contact approving official to authorize obligations and requests for additions, deductions, and/or movement of funds
• Determining method of payment for authorized and unauthorized ambulance claims submitted for consideration
• Receives invoices for payment of transportation services: Forwarding all invoices certified for payment to Fiscal Service for processing
• Writes or selects appropriate letters explaining disposition of unauthorized travel claims
• Responsible for explaining regulations and guidelines to beneficiaries
• Reconciles vouchers against authorizations for accuracy prior to preparing certifications for payment
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

Incumbent will be exposed to stressful working situations that will require a mature attitude and collective reasoning to overcome. The incumbent is subject to a great deal of stress because of the high volume of work, the need for accuracy, frequency of interruptions and ever changing demands due to program changes.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement (10/05/2026). Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date. For a GS-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade; in this instance you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

You may qualify based on your experience as described below:

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Ability to meet and deal effectively with a wide variety of staff from many educational and skill levels, for the purpose of communicating clear instructions and interpretations.
• Ability to prepare and produce written instructions, and a variety of correspondence.
• Proficient in using Microsoft software and other medical center automated systems, such as: Computerized Patient Record Systems, Scheduling Package