Lunch On Your Own
Enjoy Rustyâs Bistro or Mainstay Tavern conveniently located inside the Sheraton Sand Key resort.
Getting To The Right Scale: The 2026Â OPEN MINDSÂ Executive Seminar On Growth Through Mergers, Acquisitions & Affiliations
How big is big enough for your organization to sustain talent, market reach, and financial resources? In deciding the right path for staying competitive in the constantly shifting health and human services marketplace, many executives from specialty provider organizations are pursuing merger, acquisition, and affiliation (MA&A) strategies. In the last few years, the field has experienced a record number of MA&A among specialty provider organizations serving consumers with complex conditions. Join us for this information-packed seminar examining growth strategies and successful implementation plans from previous combinations and collaborations occurring in the health and human services field. Learn how to position your organization for sustainability and growth as we move forward into the âpost-pandemicâ world.
This seminar will focus on:
- Designing an effective strategy for growth and scale
- Assessing the options for growth â from investors to mergers
- Identifying prospective organizational partners
- Overcoming the challenges to create successful collaborations
Best Practice Data-Driven Decision Making For Performance-Based Management & Compensation: The 2026Â OPEN MINDSÂ Executive Seminar
The dynamics of accelerated change in the market have created new performance challenges for health and human services organizations. This seminar will focus on the latest performance landscape and critical domains for measuring and managing business and clinical effectiveness. Health and human services organizations have unique and evolving competition in the marketâfrom new digital-first applications demonstrating speedy access, engagement, and satisfaction with consumers to industry disrupters such as retail health clinics providing convenient access to care right where individuals shop. Showing value through data is a must have in this competitive environment, and the ability to demonstrate value through data means that organizations must also use data to drive performance improvementâclinically and administratively. In addition, leaders within organizations are challenged to make rapid course corrections, and having immediate access to the correct data has become critical to organizational success. Key objectives for this seminar will include the following:
- Look at the critical strategic performance domains and metrics for managing business and clinical health effectiveness
- Scorecard and framework for becoming a data-driven organization and for evaluating business health operations
- Decision-making model for prioritization and selection of measures
Grand Opening Of The Exhibit Hall
Join us for an unveiling of all of our great exhibitors while enjoying a cocktail and hors dâoeuvres!
Morning Beach Walk
Begin your day by joining us for a refreshing half-hour walk along the Clearwater Beach ocean! Bottled water to take on your walk will be provided by OPEN MINDS. Meet at the beach entrance by the towel stand at the swimming pool.
Executive Breakfast & Registration
If you havenât registered yet, check in with us at the registration desk and then enjoy breakfast in the exhibit hall!
Thought Leader Discussion
Join our keynote for an interactive discussion where you can take time to ask your own questions and continue the conversation.
Executive Networking Reception
End your day by unwinding with your peers, colleagues, thought leaders, and vendors. Join us in the exhibit hall and enjoy a cocktail and hors dâoeurvres!
Executive Breakfast
Start your day off right with a hot breakfast, served in the exhibit hall. Take this time to speak with our great exhibitors and talk to peers about what youâve heard this week!
Thought Leader Discussion
Join our keynote presenter for an interactive discussion where you can take time to ask your own questions and continue the conversation.
Closing Keynote
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S. is the founder of OPEN MINDS and serves as its chief executive officer, executive editor of its publications and websites, and executive lead of its consulting engagements. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. She is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field â and its focus on the verticals of the field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs.
Ms. Oss has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies for a wide array of organizations in the field. She has expertise in industry trend analysis, reimbursement, rate setting, and creating actionable plans for market success. In her role, she has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, and health plans, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms â with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a nationally managed behavioral health organization, responsible for market development, actuarial analysis, and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.
Ms. Oss has been the keynote speaker at the conferences of dozens of national associations and has been published in a wide range of professional journals and trade publications. She has provided Congressional and state legislative testimony on issues as diverse as the financial impact of parity and payer medication access policies.
Ms. Oss has led a range of industry research and consultation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on research projects that include the examination of national managed care enrollment and service patterns, development of provider rate structures for government entities, creation of return-on-investment models for technology investments; design of performance-based compensation models within public and private health plans; and analysis of the economic impact of changes in benefit design, adoption of evidence-based practices, and new technologies.