From Rebekah Bernard, MD, one of the founders of Physicians for Patient Protection, comes a new story in Medical Economics about the push-back from some physicians on the catch-all label: “provider.” It confuses patients, blurs credentials, and chips away at professional identity.
“Please stand, raise your right hand and repeat after me: I pledge not to use the word provider when referring to physicians and, further, to encourage my colleagues to do so. You may be seated.”
So began rheumatologist Dr. Robert McLean’s inaugural address as 2019 president of the American College of Physicians (ACP) — and with it, his mission to eliminate the “P-word,” provider, as a term for physicians.
“People stood, smiled, I got some claps, and several came up afterward to thank me,” McLean recalls. “It kind of became my moniker. For the rest of the year, at every committee meeting, I would start with the ‘no provider pledge.’ If somebody slipped up and used the word provider, they had to throw a dollar in the kitty.”
More than six years later, McLean is still widely recognized among recent ACP physician leaders as the standard-bearer against the term. “At a recent AMA [American Medical Association] meeting, when the word ‘provider’ slipped into speeches by CMS Director Dr. [Mehmet] Oz and AMA CEO Dr. [John] Whyte, people sitting nearby would turn around and look at me and shake their heads,” he said. McLean notes that the AMA and other major physician organizations have a long-standing policy opposing the use of the term.
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