A student stands over a patient, needle poised. They have a “perfect” prescription: a textbook combination of points harvested from a lecture slide on chronic lower back pain. But as the needle meets the skin, the student hesitates - the symptom of a quiet habit that has taken hold of our profession. We routinely say we “prescribe” points. It sounds efficient. It echoes the authority of biomedical culture and fits neatly into the insurance field. But vocabulary is never neutral; repeated long enough, it dictates behavior.
Marlene Icenhower, BSN, JD, CPHRM
Marlene Icenhower is a senior risk specialist at medical professional liability insurance company Coverys and a fellow of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (FASHRM). She graduated from St. Louis University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (1984) and a Juris Doctor (law, 1987).