Building A Whole System For Whole Health: OPEN MINDS Publishes An Interview With Corbin Petro, CEO, Carelon Behavioral Health During Mental Health Month
GETTYSBURG, Pa. (May 9, 2026) — Mental Health Awareness Month 2026 kicks off at OPEN MINDS with a virtual interview with Carelon Behavioral Health’s (Carelon) chief executive officer, Corbin Petro. Carelon is one of the largest payers responsible for the management of behavioral services for its members across all 50 states and serving more than 67 million covered lives. Ms. Petro sat down with Monica E. Oss, chief executive officer of OPEN MINDS for a discussion on emerging best practices in whole person care for people with the most challenging behavioral health conditions.
Ms. Petro takes time to describe how Carelon’s “connected care” solutions are bringing together clinical best practices, advanced technology, and population health insights to improve access and outcomes of care for people with complex conditions. “Carelon serves more than 67 million Americans, so we are able to use data and technology to look across populations and predict certain needs within populations and cohorts,” she said. “Connected care means using technology to create a seamless experience for people in what is often a very fragmented healthcare world.”
In Building A Whole System For Whole Health, Ms. Petro also discussed an initiative in Connecticut that brings a whole health approach to addressing the opioid epidemic and Carelon’s innovative peer support programs. “Peers are a tremendous asset and we’ve been using peers for many years across different programs,” she said. “There’s nothing like feeling seen and heard by somebody whose been in a similar situation or has been in your shoes, whether it’s someone with a serious mental illness or a person with a family member in recovery.”
Carelon’s focus on improving access and health for people with serious mental illnesses is high on the priority list, according to OPEN MINDS CEO, Monica Oss. “Despite increasing budgets for mental health services over the past few years, access to high quality behavioral health treatment is still a challenge,” says Ms. Oss. “Most experts agree that half of people who need mental health treatment never receive it.”
This interview is part of OPEN MINDS Executive Perspectives Series. Find this discussion and others in the OPEN MINDS library.
About Carelon Behavioral Health
Carelon Behavioral Health offers clinical mental health and substance use disorder management, a comprehensive employee assistance program, work/life support, specialty programs for autism and depression, and insightful analytics to improve the delivery of care for federal, state and local governments, health plans and employers. Carelon Behavioral Health has been delivering high-quality behavioral health care for more than 40 years across all 50 states and is a division under Carelon, part of the Elevance Health family of brands. For more information, visit www.carelonbehavioralhealth.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
About OPEN MINDS
OPEN MINDS is a national market intelligence, management consulting, and marketing services firm specializing exclusively in the markets of the health and human service field that serve consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs. The OPEN MINDS mission is to provide payers, service provider organizations, and technology and scientific firms that serve these consumers with the market and management knowledge needed to improve their organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Learn more at https://www.openminds.com.