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OPEN MINDS is a national
behavioral health and social service industry market
research and management consulting firm. Our mission
is to provide executives in the field with the
management knowledge and management tools necessary
to create "best value" for consumers by facilitating
the development of effective systems for financing
and delivering service.
Founded in 1987 and based in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, OPEN MINDS provides
information, professional education, market
research, and management consulting services to
payers, regulators, professionals, service provider
agencies, and advocacy organizations in the field.
Ultimately, what is OPEN MINDS about?
We provide the information that leads to better
payer decisions and better provider delivery systems
that, ultimately, lead to better behavioral health
and social services for consumers. The 50 associates
of
OPEN MINDS provide knowledge that is critical
to organizations that either pay for or provide
behavioral health and social services — with the
goal of improving services available to consumers.
Read our
entire Mission Statement.
OPEN MINDS offers customers 3 primary
services in the behavioral health and social service
field
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Industry research and
management consultation services
-
Industry information products
and services
-
Professional development
programs for executives, board members,
managers, and professionals
The mission of
OPEN MINDS is
to provide payers, consumers, and
service providers with the information
needed to improve the delivery of
behavioral health and social services.
Payers
(whether corporations or managed care
organizations or insurers or state
governments…) are experiencing
tremendous budget problems. Those
customers are looking for ways to “hold
the line” on spending (without reducing
quality) in such areas as mental health
services, chemical dependency treatment,
drug testing, employee assistance, child
protective services, services for the
mentally-retarded and
developmentally-disabled, long-term care
services, and juvenile justice.
Payers’ Issues: How to
get “value” for the dollars they spend?
How to control costs?
Our Role:
Help to provide payers with the
information needed to make these tough
decisions.
Consumers
of behavioral health and human services
are also facing challenging issues in
this era of privatization, managed care,
and health care reform. As the delivery
systems change, consumers want
information about how to get the
services they need out of these new
systems. These consumers are as diverse
as the person who suffers from
depression, the mother with an alcoholic
son, the employee whose family problems
are interfering with their work, the
family with a profoundly retarded
daughter, foster parents, and nursing
home residents.
Consumers’ Issues: How
do I get the services I need in these
new delivery systems? How can I tell if
those services are “good”? What can I do
to advocate for improvements in the
system?
Our Role:
Help consumers find answers to these
questions.
Providers:
The third OPEN MINDS customer
group is the professionals and
organizations that provide behavioral
health and social services. This group
includes hospitals, physicians,
psychologists, social workers,
counselors, nurses, outpatient treatment
programs, group practices, residential
treatment facilities, group homes, case
workers, probation officers, nursing
homes, community mental health centers,
managed care programs, and
community-based programs. Never have
providers of service faced such
financial, operational, and ethical
challenges as funding for services are
restructured.
Providers’ Issues: What
business strategy is needed to adapt to
this era of rapid change? What market
information is needed to compete? What
are the acceptable performance
benchmarks for quality? For
productivity? For pricing?
Our Role:
To assist providers in obtaining the
necessary information to answer these
questions.
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