Ivan
J. Miller, Ph.D.
Consumer Advocate
Dr.
Miller began his psychology career working for 17 years in the
public mental health system in hospitals and at the Boulder County
Mental Health Center. Through this experience he developed compassion
for those who relied on under-funded health care services. While
in his private practice, he continues to offer pro bono services
and maintained his commitment to public mental health.
When he became aware of how managed care was impinging on the
consumer’s ability to obtain necessary, high-quality services,
he became involved in a several organizations that worked to protect
consumers from the abuses of managed.
Dr. Miller believed that many of the abuses of managed care were
the result of hidden, proprietary procedures that created invisible
rationing. If managed care companies were required to disclose
the actual methods they used to restrict mental health care, he
believed that public pressure would end the abuses. From 1994
to 1996, he led a committee composed of Colorado mental health
professions, which lobbied for “Consumer’s Right to
Know” legislation. This legislation would have created transparency
in managed mental health care and would have exposed invisible
rationing. Although this legislation was defeated, he gained important
knowledge about the legislative process and the power of the insurance
industry.
From 1998 to 1999 he was a Founding Board Member of the Colorado
Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care. This committee was linked
to Ad Hoc Committees to Defend Health Care in several other cities,
and it attempted to introduce Consumer’s Right to Know legislation
through a ballot initiative. This initiative was discontinued
as it became apparent that regulating managed care was too complicated
for a ballot initiative, and that to solve problems in the health
care systems, more was needed than the regulation of managed care.
In 1995 Dr. Miller became a Board Member of the National Coalition
of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Inc. From 1997 to
1999 he served as its Executive Director. This organization strived
to improve mental health insurance coverage through the use of
publicity, education, and legal challenges; and it proposed alternative
models for financing mental health care. He was able to build
alliances with the leaders of national organizations representing
professionals and consumers, and through these alliances, advocate
for increased funding of mental health services, the protection
of patient privacy, and the development of responses to the deteriorating
quality of managed mental health care services.
In 1997, he was a founding Board Member of the Colorado Advocates
for Responsible Mental Health Services, a Colorado nonprofit promoting
ethical standards for mental health services. In order to protect
consumers from managed care abuses, in 1999 this organization
established a Mental Health Insurance Action Line staffed by volunteers
who were guided by his manual, Mental Health Consumer Protection
Manual: A Guide to Solving Problems with Insurance and Managed
Care. Consumers were able to use this free service for advice
about how to overcome managed care barriers to necessary mental
health services.
In 2000, the Colorado Advocates for Responsible Mental Health
Services merged with a Denver nonprofit, the Patient Advocacy
Coalition. This consumer-based organization operated a statewide
Health Rights Helpline that assisted consumers in gaining access
to health care insurance and provided advice and advocacy to obtain
insurance authorization and payments for medically necessary treatment.
Soon after the merger, he was elected Chair of the Board of Directors
and has continued in this role. In 2002, the Patient Advocacy
Coalition changed its name to the Colorado Patient Advocates,
and it has shifted focus from helping a few individuals to providing
education and information about how the U.S. health care systems
can be cured through Balanced Choice. Reflecting its revised mission,
it is now operating under the name Balanced Choice Health Care,
Inc.
For
more information about Balanced Choice click here
www.BalancedChoiceHealthCare.org.