[Med-privacy] Obtaining social security numbers

[peter marshall]

Subject: Obtaining social security numbers
[....]
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 
To: "'privacy@wedi.org'" <privacy@wedi.org>

Recently, we have been experiencing resistance from members when we request
their social security number and the numbers of their dependents. Several
letters from employees quote The Privacy Act. We are considering not
requiring dependents socials but this could negatively impact HEDIS numbers
since SSN's are the only way to track continuous enrollment.

I am wondering if other health plans are also experiencing this and if they
decided to not require social security numbers or have moved to using
another identifier.

[....]
SummaCare Health Plan