conversation snippet

[cellio]

This week we finally got some routine legal documents in order. Snippet from today's review meeting:

Me: Just out of curiosity, this place in the boilerplate where you cite [a particular act], don't you have the name wrong? It doesn't really matter, I don't think, because this is in a section heading and you have it right down in the legally-binding paragraphs below, but just checking...?

Lawyer: I never noticed that bug in our template before.

Me: My work here is done. :-)

My professional training follows me everywhere, I tell you!

(Medical power-of-attorney, and it's HIPAA, not HIPPA.)

Comments

[siderea]

You would not believe how often I find that one. Maybe if we pronounced it "hip-AY-AH".

[cellio]

Yeah, I actually thought it was HIPPA for a while (which I think means I saw it that way on a form some doctor's office had me sign), until I wondered what that actually stood for and looked it up. In this case, the full name was given in the body of the document, and it was just that bold, all-caps, larger-print section heading that had it wrong. But that kind of jumped out at me.

It's an unfortunate name. People want to pronounce longer abbreviations, not spell them out, and I don't know that folks will willingly add a syllable.

[geekosaur]

I prefer to stress and stretch the final syllable, "hip-AAAAAH".