I am not your provider
Sometimes prospective new patients ask me over the phone, “Are you a medical provider?” or “Are you a provider for [name of their particular health insurer]?” And that gets me started.
Provider. Such a generic and seemingly inoffensive noun, and yet it repels me. To me, it is the verbal equivalent of a hair ball my cat barfs onto my pillow. And so I feel obliged to clean it up by …
