Magellan reinstates psychologist

Magellan Health Services reinstated the psychology adviser it had fired earlier this year for helping homosexuals who seek therapy to change their sexual orientation.

Warren Throckmorton was terminated from Magellan in February on grounds that the company did not want controversy over his professional advocacy of rehabilitating homosexuals. Mr. Throckmorton, a psychology professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, is the past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association.

But Magellan, the nation’s largest managed-care behavioral health company, received complaints of discrimination and pro-homosexual bias from some big subscribers, causing the company to rehire the psychologist to serve on its National Professional Advisory Council, company spokeswoman Erin S. Somers said Monday.

In dismissing Mr. Throckmorton, “it was our goal to avoid having controversy, to avoid having politically polarizing issues overshadow the work of the council,” Miss Somers said. “The reaction to our decision to retract our invitation made it appear as if we were taking sides in an overall debate about homosexuality, which we are not.

“We firmly believe in individuals’ right to explore a variety of therapies to address issues that are causing distress, and that would include sexual orientation issues. And it is clear to us on that subject, we and Dr. Throckmorton agree,” Miss Somers said.

Miss Somers said Magellan received “a couple of dozen” e-mails, letters and telephone calls after publicity about Mr. Throckmorton’s dismissal. “We received feedback on both sides of the issue.”

Mr. Throckmorton said Alex R. Rodriguez, Magellan’s chief medical officer, phoned April 19 to offer him the position.

“Alex said he did not want to go into reasons, just ’we’d like you to come back, put all this behind us, do the best for our subscribers,’” he said.

When he was dismissed two months ago, “Magellan wanted to avoid controversy, but lo and behold, they got more controversy than they anticipated,” he added. “A fire got lit. It’s a textbook case how not to handle things.”

A major Magellan client that complained was LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, one of the largest providers of Bibles, church literature, Christian music and video recordings.

Magellan officials “were very receptive, very responsive to our concerns,” a LifeWay official said on the condition of anonymity. “We are pleased that Dr. Throckmorton was reinstated. This worked very well for us.”