Last Chance To Register: The 2026 OPEN MINDS Service Excellence Institute Returns To California This August To Build Momentum By Advancing Better Care
Gettysburg, PA (July 7, 2026)— Registration is closing soon for the 2026 OPEN MINDS Service Excellence Institute, taking place August 11-13, 2026, in San Francisco, California. The Institute comes as behavioral health and human service organizations face the sharpest Medicaid funding pressure in a generation. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the 2025 federal reconciliation law will reduce Medicaid spending by roughly $911 billion over the next decade and leave about 10 million more people uninsured by 2034, tightening the ground under every safety-net budget in the country.
This year’s theme, Build Momentum By Advancing Better Care, frames a three-day program organized around three tracks that meet that moment: clinical resilience, operational improvement, and service line growth. The Institute is designed for executive and operational leaders navigating those decisions, with real-world case studies and peer-tested strategies they can put to work the week they return.
More than 450 executive peers are expected to attend, alongside 25 case studies and more than 25 industry speakers. Marjorie Bessel, M.D., Executive Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer at Banner Health, will keynote on how a system-wide push on real-time data and team-based care unlocked capacity equivalent to 100 additional beds and the capacity to serve nearly 10,000 additional consumers across six states in 2024. Kaiser Permanente’s James E. Tong, M.D., Assistant Regional Medical Director, opens the main stage on where the behavioral health industry is headed, and OPEN MINDS Chief Executive Officer Monica E. Oss closes the Institute on building momentum that lasts.
The program opens August 11 with two executive seminars: Optimizing Health Plan Contracting, led by Rick Gutierrez, Ph.D., BCBA; and Portfolio Management To Optimize Organizational Performance, led by Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, sponsored by Qualifacts. The Institute also features the full-day 2026 OPEN MINDS Aging Services & Supports Summit on August 12 and the debuting 2026 OPEN MINDS Digital Therapeutics Expo, where eight selected digital therapeutics will present to an audience of CEOs and clinical leaders.
Among the most anticipated sessions is Inside Payer Innovation, featuring James Giammarco, Chief Financial Officer for Medicaid Programs at UPMC Insurance Services, a rare on-stage look at how a major health plan is rethinking value and risk with provider partners.
“The pressure our members are managing is operational, and it is relentless,” said Casey Bell, Chief Operating Officer of OPEN MINDS. “We built this Institute to send leaders home with moves they can run the next week, from stronger payer contracts to service lines that protect margin. That is how a hard market becomes durable performance.”
The full agenda can be found at excellence.openminds.com/agenda.
Registration is closing soon. Seating for the debut Digital Therapeutics Expo and the August 11 executive seminars is limited. Registration is included with membership in the OPEN MINDS Circle Market Intelligence Service. Non-members can pay and register at excellence.openminds.com.
For questions about OPEN MINDS educational programs, sponsorship opportunities, or media inquiries, contact the Executive Education Events team at events@openminds.com or 717-334-1329.
Premier Partners & Exhibitors
OPEN MINDS institutes are made possible by OPEN MINDS premier partners, Alera Health, Cantata, Core Solutions, Netsmart, Otsuka, Qualifacts, Spectrum Healthcare, and Trillium Health Resources.
Featured exhibitors for the 2026 Service Excellence Institute include Amigo, Anonymous Health, Cantata, ContinuumCloud, Core Solutions, Genoa Healthcare, iCAREManager, mdhub, Nanonets, Netsmart, Qualifacts, Streamline Healthcare Solutions, and Volta.
About OPEN MINDS
OPEN MINDS is a national market intelligence, management consulting, and marketing services firm specializing exclusively in the high-needs consumer market: mental health, addiction treatment, cognitive disabilities, chronic health conditions, elder services, health-related social needs, and adjacent markets within the health and human service field. The OPEN MINDS mission is to provide payers, service provider organizations, pharmaceutical, 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 openminds.com.