The first use case in Santa Cruz County involves the state’s Justice-Involved Reentry Initiative, which allows eligible Californians who are incarcerated to enroll in Medi-Cal and receive a targeted set of services in the 90 days before their release.

The goal is to help county departments across health, social services, and public safety coordinate care and services through secure, consent-based access to shared information.

The county is using the MX Engage platform from Manifest MedEx, California's largest nonprofit health data network. 

Manifest MedEx said it designed MX Engage to be implemented by counties across California. The platform brings together social, behavioral, and clinical data into one view of each person's social care risks and needs. Authorized care teams can also use built-in tools, like intake forms, behavioral health screeners, and closed-loop referrals, to coordinate care directly without needing to track down records across separate systems.

MX Engage will ultimately enable one coordinated release plan across Santa Cruz’s sheriff, probation, behavioral health, and housing departments. Authorized access to shared information supports pre-release assessments, screeners, referrals, and care plans for incarcerated individuals, with additional county teams and use cases to follow.

“This is an important opportunity for us to address a key turning point in people's lives and it starts with better data," said George Malachowski, Planning and Evaluation Division Director in the Santa Cruz Human Services Department, in a statement. “A data sharing system that incorporates multiple departments reduces bottlenecks, prevents duplicate services, and gives staff clear visibility into whether a person actually received the service they were referred to, so no one falls through the cracks, and people get support faster.”

The implementation is funded through a California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) grant that provides capacity-building investments for organizations to expand the staffing, infrastructure, systems, and partnerships needed to strengthen coordination and improve access to services.

Santa Cruz's implementation follows Fresno County, which became the first county to use MX Engage, launching this month as part of the Fresno County Information Exchange (FCIE), the region's approach to community data exchange in support of public health and whole person care goals. 

The first use case rolled out within Fresno County is the Home Visiting Program, which provides services at home for pregnant people and families with young children. The program, administered by the Fresno Department of Public Health, offers parenting support, health education, and connections to community resources. Through MX Engage, Manifest MedEx integrates home visitation data from disparate sources and providers across Fresno County, helping community health workers identify overlaps in services and optimize care delivery.