Medical Support Assistant

Medical Support Assistant

The Medical Support Assistant (MSA) provides medical administrative support to inpatient and outpatient clinical areas. Duties include, but are not limited to:

• Receives and processes telephone calls from patients, family members, internal staff, and other customers; obtains necessary information, responds to requests, and appropriately routes calls or referrals.
• Coordinates administrative information between patients and professional staff to support patient care and unit operations.
• Updates and verifies patient demographic and other administrative information and maintains accurate patient records.
• Uses electronic health record and administrative systems, including VistA and CPRS, to enter, retrieve, verify, and process patient information.
• Schedules and coordinates patient appointments, including discharge and follow-up appointments, in accordance with applicable scheduling requirements.
• Processes scheduled and unscheduled patient admissions and assists with discharge, transfer, and other patient movement processes.
• Reviews and verifies orders and ensures required laboratory, radiology, and other requests are completed to support patient appointments and care.
• Coordinates transportation and provides or verifies documents necessary for admission, discharge, transfer, and other patient-care processes.
• Reviews demographic and financial information with patients and refers patients for eligibility, enrollment, or financial assessment when appropriate.
• Communicates discharge appointments and follow-up information to patients and assists them in understanding required next steps.
• Works collaboratively with clinical staff, bed management, environmental services, diagnostics, social work, case management, and other services to support patient care and efficient patient flow.
• Provides courteous and professional customer service to Veterans, family members, visitors, and staff while maintaining patient privacy and confidentiality.
• Performs other administrative duties necessary to support the operations of the assigned clinical area.

Grade Level: The GS-3 is the entry level and the GS-4 is a developmental level. Assignments at the lower grade levels are performed with greater guidance and supervision. Duties become progressively more complex and are performed with greater independence as the employee progresses to the GS-5 full-performance level.

Work Schedule: Full-time, 3:30pm - 12:00am or Midnight - 8:00am with rotating weekends and holidays. Work schedule subject to change based on agency needs.

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)

Physical Requirements: The work requires frequent standing bending, reaching and walking. The work requires light lifting and carrying under 15 lbs. Must have full manual dexterity and keyboarding skills. This may be considered demanding physical activity.