Transportation Assistant

Transportation Assistant

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Portland, Oregon

Salary Range: $48443 - $62973 Per Year

Job Summary: The Veterans Transportation Program (VTP)/Beneficiary Travel (BT) department administers beneficiary travel program benefits to Veterans who meet eligibility criteria. Staff review, adjudicate and authorize claims for costs incurred while traveling from their home to a VA medical appointment at the VAPORHCS, the Veteran's assigned community based outpatient clinic, and a VA authorized non-VA medical facility as well as other facilities within VISN 20 who refer patients to VAPORHCS for care.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include but is not limited to: Utilizes various software applications to accurately determine and/or verify Veteran eligibility and amount owed for travel reimbursement Assist Veterans with waiver applications Reviews clinical request for transportation at VA expense utilizing CPRS and determines best mode of transportation Arranges complex transport i.e. Cabulance, Ambulance and air ambulance for patients adhering to provider specifications of mode of transport and ensuring that mode is correctly denoted according to the patient's medical condition Coordinates patient transfer with other VA ensuring the patient arrives at a specified time for admission Accurately arranges and coordinates air ambulance travel for eligible Veterans Makes travel arrangements from basic information from the traveler en route to resolve problems Continually assess the status of the Beneficiary Travel program through the use of quality assurance measurement tools to ensure compliance with existing directives, guidelines and regulations Arranges all modes of transportation via Veterans Transportation Service (VTS), air ambulance, commercial air, taxi, ambulance, bus and/or independent transport Corresponds with physician, traveler, and vendor to determine the most dependable and economical mode of transportation Prepares appropriate documentation and/or scheduling for traveler according to government transportation availability, government rates or substantial rates Makes special arrangements per physician documentation according to traveler's medical condition and/or preference Secures reservations and tickets from carriers Reviews requests for reimbursement of travel costs for the purpose of assuring compliance with regulations and procedures, completeness, accuracy, internal consistency, and agreement with basic authorization Processes a claim as Electronic Funds Transfer, paper check or denial of benefits reviews claims for accuracy and ensures all required documentation is attached Receives in-person, telephone and written contacts from Veterans, their representatives and staff regarding questions or problems related to transportation or reimbursement benefits collect, organize, track and count all beneficiary travel reimbursement forms from various locations throughout the facility Orders office supplies for the section and tracks and organizes orders May also be assigned the task as time keeper Work Schedule: Monday to Friday; 8:30 am - 5:00 pm (PST), or, 7:30 am to 4:00 pm (PST) Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Transportation Assistant/PD21145A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 12/15/2025. 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 within 30 days of 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: Assisting customers in person and on the phone to process requests. Arranging various modes of transportation to include, air ambulance, commercial air, taxi, ambulance, bus, and/or contracted transport services. Determining eligibility for programs and processing requests for travel pay. Preparing appropriate documentation and/or scheduling for traveler according to government rates or substantial rates. Determining which of several fund control points to utilize, obligating funds, maintaining manual and electronic accounting records, performing regular reconciliations and adjusting account balances. Determining method of payment for authorized and unauthorized claims submitted for consideration. Note: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month & year starting and year ending dates AND hours worked per week. 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/. Physical Requirements: Work involves various physical demands requiring the employee to be versatile in the many functions performed. These include sedentary work performed at a desk with intermittent standing, walking, bending, and lifting of lightweight records or supplies. Work Environment: Work is performed in an office setting. Work is performed within view and hearing of patients and the general public. The Transportation Assistant has direct contact with the Veterans and possible exposure to contagious diseases. Immediate attention is required for patient funds activities, and travel arrangements must be completed timely. Meeting these obligations may present varied demands on the incumbent. Patients may present skeptical, agitated, uncooperative, and some may become hostile or dangerous. The work environment is multifaceted, complex and demanding.

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/12833343. 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, 12/15/2025. 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. 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. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume, only the most current resume will be reviewed for consideration. 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: 2025-12-15