OSWEGO, N.Y. — Exelon (NASDAQ: EXC) has donated 30 iPads to Oswego Health to enable virtual meetings with Medicaid patients needing services.
Exelon, based in Chicago, operates the James A. Fitzpatrick and the Nine Mile Point nuclear power plants in Scriba.
With the current state of the pandemic, Oswego Health’s care-management unit is “finding it more difficult” to assist clients with coordinating care because many of them don’t have access to the proper technology, the organization said in a news release.
For those reasons, Deanne Meyers-Acome, Oswego Health’s care-coordination manager, worked with the Oswego Health Foundation to contact Exelon to see if the company could provide any additional support.
Exelon upgrades its technology regularly and donates used equipment to local nonprofits.
“It’s always been a focus of our organization to assure excess resources go to helping the right people. This was the perfect opportunity to give back and help bridge the coordination challenges facing care management and their clients.” Nick Millard, corporate maintenance instructor at Exelon, said. “Exelon is happy to provide Oswego Health care management with 30 iPads to assist their clients in the community with access to care through Telemed. In addition, the iPads can be used for families that have multiple children that may be limited in devices to access their educational needs to complete schoolwork as we know these care managers are offering support however their clients need it.”
Oswego Health cites data from NY State of Health, the New York’s online health-insurance marketplace, as indicating more than 20,000 Oswego County residents were enrolled in Medicaid during 2019.
Many of those residents need additional support and assistance with services. Oswego Health’s care-management group meets the clients “regularly” to help manage their medical needs, social needs, and behavioral needs, per the news release.
Some examples of the assistance it provides are coordinating care with providers, therapists, educational needs, housing solutions, transportation, along with offering additional support so individuals can live a healthy life.
Oswego Health care management
The Oswego Health care-management team includes 17 care managers that specialize in children or adults. On average the children’s care managers service 25 Medicaid clients each per month in Oswego County and the adult-care managers service 40 clients a month.
In total, the Oswego Health care-management group is an extension of service to more than 1,000 Medicaid clients throughout the community yearly and about 30 non-Medicaid children that are contracted through the county with the Oswego Health care-management unit.