Health Benefits Assistant

This position description is for a Health Benefits Assistant (HBA), located within the Health Benefits section of Wilkes Barre VA Medical Center. The HBA is responsible to provide a high level of administrative and data support to the department in all matters health benefits related to include the Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs).

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/06/2026. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: For Specialized Experience at GS-05: At least one (1) full year of specialized experience, which equips you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the Health Benefits Assistant, GS-05 position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, this specialized experience must have been equivalent to the GS-04 grade level in Federal service to qualify at the grade 05.Examples of specialized experience include:1) Providing positive, upbeat, customer service while interacting with patients and hospital staff2) Updating and verifying demographic information3) Creating electronic medical files4) Utilization of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Outlook to complete work assignments5) Providing administrative support: filing, answering phones, greeting customers, misc. office work. OR GS-05: Substitution of Education for Experience (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED): Do you possess Four (4) years of education above the high school level in any field for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. This education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university. One year of full-time academic study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university, or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business, secretarial, or technical school. OR GS-05: Combination of Education and Experience (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIED): Do you possess a combination of successfully completed education and experience to meet the total experience requirements. (i.e. 6 months of specialized experience and 3 years of education above the high school level). NOTE: Only education beyond the second year can be used in combination with specialized experience to qualify for this grade. 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/.