Program Support Assistant

Full Job Description

The Western NY VA Healthcare system is currently recruiting for one Program Support Assistant for the Buffalo location in the Service Center with in the Business Office Department.

This position performs a broad range of complex administrative activities in support of access to healthcare related benefits; enrollment, eligibility determination and travel services.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/07/2026.

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 of this announcement.

For a GS-05 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04. 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, as required by the announcement.

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 To qualify based on your experience and/or education you must possess one of the following below: Program Support Assistant (OA), GS-05 grade: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-04 grade level in the federal service); experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) and other characteristics to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Specialized experience includes: Responsible for providing clerical, technical, or customer support; Receiving and referring phone calls; Communicating and treating customers in a courteous, tactful and respectful manner while providing consistent information according to established policies and procedures; and Using computer programs to prepare correspondence and manage documents.

OR, Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-05 level: To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have four (4) years above high school.

OR, Applicants may also have a combination of education and experience to qualify at the GS-05 level: To calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned (when substituting, you cannot use the first 60 semester hours that you earned).

Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-05.

For example, an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e. 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e.

50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the position A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Major Duties:

Major Program Support Assistant (OA) duties include: Health Benefits Enrollment and Eligibility Advisor: Advises applicants of the health care benefits they are legally entitled to in person and over the phone, initiates administrative processes for establishing care, adjudicates eligibility when discrepancies exist, and notifies appropriate healthcare personnel accordingly.

Decedent Affairs Duties: Responsible for all administrative functions related to the Decedent Affairs program including details of patient death cases occurring within the Medical Center.

Serves as a liaison between Medical Center staff, next of kin, organ/body donation recovery units and funeral directors.

Beneficiary Travel Advisor: Demonstrates working knowledge and technical proficiency in Beneficiary Travel program administration using eligibility criteria and regulatory authorities to appropriately administer program benefits to eligible patients and caretakers.

Prepares and processes claims for travel reimbursement, authors vouchers to reimburse travel cost to eligible beneficiaries and communicates eligibility criteria to the patient.

HOPTEL: Perform administrative responsibilities in management of Hoptel services.

Ensure guest meet eligibility requirements and are able to independently function in the Hoptel environment according to orders/Hoptel notes.

Admissions: Will be responsible for monitoring and processing admissions and transfer of inpatients from clinics and the Emergency Room accurately and in a timely manner.

Is required to determine eligibility for inpatient status, including medical, surgical, behavioral health, domiciliary, and long term care and alerting management/admitting provider regarding ineligible patients submitted for admission.

Note: The above is not an exhaustive list of duties and you will be expected to perform additional tasks as necessitated by the supervisor or designee.

Work Schedule: Monday- Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position Physical Requirements: The work involves mostly administrative processing which requires standing, walking, sitting, stooping, bending, lifting light objects, answering the telephone and retrieving and entering data into various computer programs and databases.

Position Description Title/PD#: Program Support Assistant/PD21T53A Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met.

Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level.