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.