What are the responsibilities and job description for the Advanced Medical Support Assistant position at Jonathan M Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center?
The Richland, WA VA Clinic is looking to fill an Advanced Medical Support Assistant position.
Basic Requirements:
At the GS -6 grade level education cannot be used as a substitution for the above specialized experience.
May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria)
Candidates must demonstrate the KSAs below:
1. 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.
2. Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians.
May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).
Reference: VA Handbook 5005/117, Medical Support Assistant Qualification Standard, GS-679. Published August 1, 2019. 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: The work is mostly sedentary but may require periods of standing or walking however, there are no physical requirements for the 0679 Medical Support Assistant occupation.
Advanced Medical Support Assistants provide administrative support to our clinical colleagues in the care of our Nation's Veterans. Our mission is to provide efficient and effective healthcare services by promoting and enabling the delivery of timely, accurate, accessible health care. VA is committed to cultivating a dedicated workforce of highly skilled employees who understand, believe in and take pride in VA's mission. AMSAs are essential to the success of this mission and may be assigned to any department/service line of the medical center that have a need.
Duties will include but are not limited to:
- Determining health care eligibility for Veteran patients.
- Administrative processing of Veteran patients in enrollment, benefits, and registration.
- Counseling Veteran patients regarding entitlement enrollment for health care benefits and other special programs.
- Obtaining essential information and documentation from Veteran patients for enrollment activities.
- Performing scheduling functions for Veteran patients including appointments, cancellations, and re-scheduling.
- Facilitating communication between Veterans and other facility consult departments.
- Support of inpatient units and wards with administrative duties during day, evening, night, and weekend shifts.
- Processing and record keeping of inpatient medical records.
- Manual and electronic data entry.
- Collation of statistical information.
- Entry of Physician orders and consult requests.
- Prepares Veteran patient statistics.
- Providing reception to incoming and outgoing customers and communication.
- Utilizes Microsoft Office software to compile data and formulate reports
Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8am-4:30pm
Recruitment Incentive (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 #: 000000
This is an OPEN CONTINUOUS ANNOUNCEMENT. The initial cut-off date for referral of eligible applications will be June 10th, 2026 and applicants will be referred on an 'as needed' basis thereafter. Announcement will remain open through June 25th, 2026, but may be extended if needed prior to the initial closing date.
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.
- English Language Proficient.
- Education: High school diploma OR high school transcript (unofficial or official) OR GED Certificate OR homeschooling completion OR proficiency certificate issued by a State or Territorial Board or Department of Education OR college transcript (official)
- If selected, to meet the basic requirement of high school education or equivalent and prior to a firm job offer being extended, applicants must provide one of the following as verification of the education requirement if not covered under the grandfathering provision:
At the GS -6 grade level education cannot be used as a substitution for the above specialized experience.
May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria)
Candidates must demonstrate the KSAs below:
1. 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.
2. Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians.
May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).
Reference: VA Handbook 5005/117, Medical Support Assistant Qualification Standard, GS-679. Published August 1, 2019. 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: The work is mostly sedentary but may require periods of standing or walking however, there are no physical requirements for the 0679 Medical Support Assistant occupation.
Responsibilities:
Total Rewards of a Allied Health ProfessionalAdvanced Medical Support Assistants provide administrative support to our clinical colleagues in the care of our Nation's Veterans. Our mission is to provide efficient and effective healthcare services by promoting and enabling the delivery of timely, accurate, accessible health care. VA is committed to cultivating a dedicated workforce of highly skilled employees who understand, believe in and take pride in VA's mission. AMSAs are essential to the success of this mission and may be assigned to any department/service line of the medical center that have a need.
Duties will include but are not limited to:
- Determining health care eligibility for Veteran patients.
- Administrative processing of Veteran patients in enrollment, benefits, and registration.
- Counseling Veteran patients regarding entitlement enrollment for health care benefits and other special programs.
- Obtaining essential information and documentation from Veteran patients for enrollment activities.
- Performing scheduling functions for Veteran patients including appointments, cancellations, and re-scheduling.
- Facilitating communication between Veterans and other facility consult departments.
- Support of inpatient units and wards with administrative duties during day, evening, night, and weekend shifts.
- Processing and record keeping of inpatient medical records.
- Manual and electronic data entry.
- Collation of statistical information.
- Entry of Physician orders and consult requests.
- Prepares Veteran patient statistics.
- Providing reception to incoming and outgoing customers and communication.
- Utilizes Microsoft Office software to compile data and formulate reports
Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8am-4:30pm
Recruitment Incentive (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 #: 000000
Salary : $417