[Hiring] Medical Records Administrator Specialist @Palo Alto VA Medical Center

Role Description

The Medical Records Administrator Specialist (MRAS) position is located in the Health Administration Service at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. The incumbent in this position is responsible for providing professional consultation, administrative assistance, and health records. The MRAS manages, preserves, analyzes, and oversees the use of diagnostic and therapeutic medical records/health information, and provides expert advice on health information management across the medical center.

• Work Schedule: 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday-Friday
• Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized
• Remote: This position is being filled as remote (i.e., the employee will not work at a VA Facility or VA-Leased space).
• Telework: Once returned to the office Telework may be approved as ADHOC, depending on Supervisor approval.
• Virtual: This is a virtual position.
• Functional Statement #: GS-5: 10445-F, GS-7: 10446-F, GS-9: 10447-F and GS-11: 10448-F
• Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
• Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
• PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized

Major Duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Maintains current knowledge of regulatory and policy requirements affecting coded information.
• Works within a team environment; supports peers in meeting goals and deadlines; flexible and handles multiple tasks, works under pressure; and copes with frequently changing projects and deadlines.
• Analyzes situations or processes and recommends improvements.
• Participates in quality assurance studies of hard-copy and/or electronic health record (EHR) processing.
• Provides education and training to HIM, clinical and administrative staff.
• Serves as an EHR liaison for automated clinical applications, particularly those involving the clinical record and tools supporting clinicians and other health care providers.
• Conducts research and coordinates projects and studies of records systems, including defining study scope, formulating plans of action, designing tools, tabulating results, summarizing findings, making recommendations, and preparing management reports.

Qualifications

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Education or Experience:
  • Experience: Three years of [creditable] experience in the field of medical records that included the preparation, maintenance, and management of [health] records and health information systems [demonstrating a knowledge of medical terminology,] medical records [procedures, medical coding, or medical, administrative, and legal requirements of health care delivery] systems.
  • OR, Education: Successful completion of a bachelor's degree or higher from an accredited college or university [recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, with a major field of study in health information management, or a related degree with a minimum of 24 semester hours in health information management or health information technology.
  • OR, Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combinations of [creditable] experience and education that equals 100 percent may be used to meet basic requirements.
• Certification: Persons hired or reassigned to MRA positions in the GS-0669 series in VHA must meet one of the following:
  • Coding Certification through AHIMA or AAPC.
  • HIM Certification through AHIMA.
  • Health Data Analyst Certification through AHIMA.

Requirements

• Medical Records Administration Specialist, GS-5: None beyond basic requirements.
• Medical Records Administration Specialist, GS-7:
  • In addition to the basic requirements, [one] year of [creditable] experience equivalent to the next lower grade level.
  • OR, Education (Advanced Entry-Level Placement): Applicants who meet the GS-5 grade level may be appointed at the GS-7 grade level, if they possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in a major field of study in health information management, with an exemplary academic record.
• Medical Records Administration Specialist, GS-9:
  • One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade level that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics described at that level.
  • OR, Education: Education equivalent to two full years of progressively higher level graduate education or a master's [degree] or equivalent graduate degree from an accredited college or university in a field directly related to health information management.
• Medical Records Administration Specialist, GS-11:
  • One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade level that demonstrates all of the KSAs described at that level.
  • OR, Education: Education equivalent to three full years of progressively higher-level graduate education or a Ph.D., or equivalent doctoral degree from an accredited university or college in the field of health information management.

Benefits

• The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-11.
• The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-5 to GS-11.

Physical Requirements

The work is sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there may be some walking; standing; bending; carrying of light items such as papers, books, small parts; or driving an automobile, etc. No special physical demands are required to perform the work.