[Ads-l] Medical insurance Kentuckianisms?

[Dan Goncharoff]

Isn't payor legalese, and not just in Kentucky?

DanG

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 12:39 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Medical insurance Kentuckianisms?
>
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>
> Today I listened to the automated answering voice of a company that
> assists my medical insurer in determining whether another party
> should share in payments to cover an accident (such as someone else
> who was negligent).  The letter I had received was from Louisville,
> Kentucky.
>
> 1)  Early on she said, with a southern intonation, "We provide
> subrogation services to your payor [sic]."  What distressed and
> suffering accident victim these days will know what "subrogation"
> means?  Why not say "We provide assistance to your medical service
> provider in determining whether another party may be responsible for
> some of the costs resulting from a recent accident"?
>
> 2)  "Payor" was pronounced "pay-OR", as in "oar/ore/or".  I wonder
> how it was spelled in her script.  I notice, however, that the OED
> has one recent, relevant quotation:
>
> 2004   www.gsk.com 8 Nov. (O.E.D. Archive) ,   Patients must be
> paying the full cost of their prescriptions to participate (i.e., not
> reimbursed by any third-party payor).
>
> Joel
>
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