What are payers and payors?
Firstly, both the terms payor and a payer are referred to as a person or a party responsible for some kind of financial obligation. It is common in a financial transaction for one party to make a payment to another party in exchange for goods or valuable assets.
In this context, both payor and payer are responsible for the paying end of the party or the party having financial responsibility to fulfill a legal obligation to hold the services.
Know the difference between payors and payers
Both the words “payor” and “payer” indefinitely mean “the one who pays” while involved in a financial transaction.
Though both the words start similarly and end with or/er, they are interchangeably used as someone who pays something or payable to a financial party and payer is the word most commonly used.
Payor might sound like a professional word, but “payer” is usually preferred and is considered the correct word, because of its huge majority.
If you want to look into a visual instance, consider two mailboxes with the word “payer” written across the font on both boxes A payers are the people who draw the contents and the inside of the mailbox and pay them to someone else, whereas a Payors refers to the mailboxes filled with money entirely and is kept lying on the table.
Another important point of difference to note is that the payor always should be necessarily paying by cash whereas a payer need not pay by cash always. A payer is entitled to pay the party using anything, be it cash or credit, and is not abided by any compulsion to pay by cash whereas this is not the case for a payor and he is always obliged to pay by cash.
The etymology of both the words, payer, and payor
The payor is a word adopted from the 13th century and comes from the Latin word for “paid”. The root word is called “pay” which describes something that has been paid or is entitled to pay.
The word payer was adopted in the 15th century. It comes from the word “pay” attached with a suffix “or” that adds a tinge of professionalism and official air to the word.
Though the two words are almost used interchangeably in medical and health care fields, it sure draws a whole line of difference when compared to English grammar. The word “Payor” is denoted as a noun that is usually used as a synonym for a contributor to financial services and a sponsor who is not always under compulsion to pay immediately.
The word “Payer” is also a noun that refers to a person who is completely entitled to pay for the services he/she has rendered without a due. Both the words “payor” and “payer” serve as agent nouns that are formed from the verb “to pay”, but suffixes “or” or “er” cannot be simply added to it to make a noun.
Certain rules have to be followed governing noun formation. The suffix “or” is added to the classical and post-classical Latin nouns to make them professionally sound. The choice of adding “or” or “er” for noun formation is always unstable and complies with the erratic decision.
In legal writing, the “or” version is usually preferred for writing words. However, when there is no implication of professional writing and writing from a formal perspective “er” version is preferred.
Conclusion
To sum it up, both the words payor and payer are interchangeably used and denoted for the same thing, used in a similar context as a person who makes any form of payment and is entitled to a legal obligation of making a payment. In general, both the words are equally similar and used for a similar context, but if you must make a decision and choose one word, “payer” is usually preferred and is widely used in comparison with “payor”. According to the Mariam Webster dictionary, both the words are used similarly and the context with which they are used is similar without a difference. The payor is less used due to the strong vigilance of English grammar it carries and the word “payer” is usually preferred. But no matter what the difference is, if the reader understands the purpose behind the word used in a sentence, then the purpose is served and one shouldn’t worry much about the word preference.
