Transportation Assistant

Transportation Assistant

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Butler, Pennsylvania

Salary Range: $46484 - $60427 Per Year

Job Summary: The position is located under the Veterans Transportation Service (VTS) at the VA Butler Healthcare Center. The incumbent will report to the Beneficiary Travel Supervisor as well as the Chief, Veterans Transportation Service. The incumbent is responsible for overall planning, coordination, implementation, management, and evaluation of clinical applications of patient transportation with emphasis on improving care and safety of veterans.

Major Duties:

• Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm Position Description/PD#: Transportation Assistant/PD02510NR Major Duties Include but not limited to: Collaborates in a customer-driven, professional environment to develop new models of care that emphasize prevention, improve access and coordination of care; educate and empower patients and their families; enhance the customer experience with positive human interactions and therapeutic alliances; and promote the coordination, continuity and integration of care. Responsible to review for accuracy and process Beneficiary Travel claims for the purpose of reimbursing Veterans for travel to and from VA medical appointments. Review eligibility of each Veteran before finalizing Beneficiary Travel reimbursements. Attends to all details of voucher processing to prevent the processing of fraudulent claims. Research payments for reimbursement. Prepare data processing report for daily batch review. Prepare & audit Beneficiary Travel voucher daily batch for errors. Compile & submit daily clerk report summarizing all vouchers processed, phone calls, and customer service interactions. Review eligibility of each Veteran before scheduling Special Mode Transportation, including review of CPRS Bene-Travel consults. Coordinate daily with all vendors for Special Mode Transportation. Review eligibility of each Veteran before authorizing Ambulance Bill payments. Evaluate all aspects of fraud research and prevention in accordance with VA Policy. The Beneficiary Travel program provides transportation at Government expense to beneficiaries and their attendants traveling to and from VA facilities and other places for examination, treatment or care. This will include correctly determining eligibility for the program, and processing requests, correctly determining which of several fund control points to utilize, obligating funds, maintaining manual and electronic accounting records, performing regular reconciliations and adjusting account balances. The incumbent contacts approving official to authorize obligations and requests for additions, deductions, and/or movement of funds. He/she makes necessary changes to fund control points. Responsible for determining method of payment for authorized and unauthorized ambulance claims submitted for consideration; Receives invoices for payment of transportation services. Investigates authorizations, orders, and/or utilizes the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) to review medical records, forwards for clinician review and supervisory approval and submits all documents for payment utilizing appropriate control point for reference. Responsible for forwarding all invoices certified for payment to Financial Management Service (FMS) for processing. He/she acts as liaison between vendors and FMS for invoices pending payment. Writes or selects appropriate letters explaining disposition of unauthorized travel claims. Responsible for explaining regulations and guidelines to beneficiaries for submitting any unauthorized ambulance claims to the VA Medical Center for consideration of payment. Corresponds with ambulance service provider regarding technical problems. Responsible for reviewing, balancing, reconciling, and adjusting invoices for payment. Prepares reports for cab service to determine annual, local mobility usage. Documents & prepares statistical ambulance reports to supervisor upon request for fiscal year budget. Maintains & controls filing system in accordance with VA regulations. Arranges all modes of transportation via air ambulance, commercial air, taxi, ambulance, bus, and/or contracted transport services. May correspond with physician, traveler, social worker or CBOC representative and vendor to determine the most dependable and economical mode of transportation. The incumbent prepares appropriate documentation and/or scheduling for traveler according to government rates or substantial rates. He/she makes special arrangements per physician documentation according to traveler's medical condition and/or preference with a high priority emphasis on organ transplant patients, SCI (spinal cord injury), TBI (traumatic brain injury), OEF/OIF/OND patients. Reviews requests for reimbursement of travel costs for assuring compliance with regulations and procedures, completeness, accuracy, internal consistency, and agreement with basic authorization. Reconciles vouchers against authorizations for accuracy prior to preparing certifications for payment. Receive vehicle requests, schedule, assign, and provide vehicles keys to VA employees authorized to utilize VA Butler assigned vehicles. Assures that all appropriate VA forms are used correctly, and regulations followed. Compressed/Flexible: Not Available Telework: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/25/2025. 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-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, 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. 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: ??????? Maintaining automated system of program-specific data to track items such as service project milestones, progress reports, program trends, performance measures, compliance strategies, etc... Determines eligibility for program and processes requests. Determines method of payment for authorized services Reviews medical records or determines eligibility for services Explains regulatory guidelines to beneficiaries submitting for services or benefits 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/.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12831216. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 11/25/2025. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.

Application Deadline: 2025-11-25