Orange County United Way, Orangewood Foundation and Bonterra Did What Washington Couldn’t: Connect Health Care and Social Services in Real Time
A community-led model — not a federal mandate, not an EHR vendor — has cracked the interoperability problem that has
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For more than a decade, the promise of connecting health care and social services has been deferred to Washington, major Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors, or whatever federal mandate might come next. Two organizations in Orange County didn’t wait. In a first-of-its-kind deployment, Orange County United Way, Orangewood Foundation, and Bonterra have built a working model in which a young person’s case information moves between a nonprofit case manager, a Medicaid health plan, and a county homelessness system in near real time — a handoff that used to take days.
The gap between health care and social care isn’t a technology problem. Health systems have spent billions connecting hospitals to each other. The social safety net never received that level of investment. Housing, food, and care systems remained walled off, and the nonprofits closest to the client had no practical way to bridge the gaps. Hundreds of communities are still waiting for a top-down fix. Orange County United Way and the Orangewood Foundation built one from the ground up, in months, without a federal directive.
“This is what the social determinants of health movement has been trying to unlock for a decade,” said Jill Guffey, VP of Solutions Architecture at Bonterra. “When a nonprofit case manager, a health plan, and a housing system can see the same client at the same moment, you stop losing people between the cracks. Orange County United Way and the Orangewood Foundation just showed the country how to do it.”
How It Works
The model starts from a simple premise: the nonprofit relationship is an asset, and United Way conveners already have the trust to activate it. Orange County United Way brought the partners together. Orangewood Foundation, which serves young people navigating homelessness, foster care transitions, and economic hardship, provided the use case. Together, they integrated Bonterra’s Apricot case management platform, Orange County’s homelessness Continuum of Care system, and CalOptima Connect, the county’s Medicaid health plan data exchange, through United Way’s GetHelpOC social care network.
Governance and data-quality standards were set by the Continuum of Care — not by a vendor. Ownership of those connections shifted away from federal programs and EHR companies toward the organizations closest to the people being served.
“Bonterra Apricot gave us the flexibility and infrastructure to build integrations that actually work for frontline staff and the clients they serve,” said Josh Myers, Director of Data and Evaluation at Orangewood Foundation. “By eliminating double data entry, we’re giving that time back to our case managers so they can focus on quality case management, not paperwork.”
Early Results
In the first year of operation, Orangewood has documented:
- Thousands of staff hours redirected from duplicate data entry to direct client services.
- Faster access to care for youth through real-time data flow to CalOptima and the county homelessness system.
- Full-program visibility across funding streams, outcomes, and service delivery.
“Efficiency and visibility only matter if they lead to better outcomes for the young people we serve,” Myers added. “With Apricot, they do.”
Why This Matters at Scale
About 4.2 million young people experience homelessness in the U.S. each year. The agencies serving them juggle systems that rarely communicate. Every hour a case manager spends reconciling those systems is an hour not spent with a young person.
Orange County United Way and the Orangewood Foundation show that communities don’t have to wait. Community organizations, working through a convener like United Way, can build these connections themselves. Bonterra and Orange County United Way are developing the framework built here into a model other regions can adopt without starting from scratch.
Interested in Adopting This Model?
Communities looking to implement similar interoperability solutions can learn more by contacting: Jill Guffey, VP, Solutions Architecture at Bonterra, Jill.Guffey@bonterratech.com.
About Bonterra
Bonterra is the only solutions network built to connect nonprofits and funders across the social good ecosystem. Supporting more than 216,000 organizations and facilitating over $22B in annual giving, Bonterra helps nonprofits, volunteers, funders, corporate partners, and public agencies turn data into action and amplify impact. As the technology leader advancing the effort to raise charitable giving to 3% of U.S. GDP by 2033, Bonterra combines trusted platforms, ethical AI, and continuous innovation to power the next era of good.
About Orangewood Foundation
Orangewood Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing innovative services that uplift and empower young people facing challenges across Orange County. Orangewood is working toward a future where every young person thrives.
About Orange County United Way
Orange County United Way is a stand-alone, independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that mobilizes the community to create brighter futures for all, today and for generations to come. Through advocacy, collaboration, and innovative programming, Orange County United Way addresses the County’s unique challenges — strengthening local resilience and expanding youth opportunity, financial stability, and access to stable housing.
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