Why does the doctor's office ask you for your SSN?

[princessmom29]

The Dr's office may tell you they need the SS number to file an insurance claim, but they do not.
They want the SS number in the case your insurance company will not pay for the visit, the Drs office will then go after you.
Our insurance company even sent out letters telling us to NOT furnish our SS numbers and to tell the office they would not need it.
The insurance company said all the Dr office needs is the Group # and the Plan #

Not true, at least in Alabama. My mother is the one filing the claims and she HAS to have an SSN or they cannot be filed. The group and plan numbers are not enough. I asked this question when I went on my own insurance as I didn't want to be giving it out. In Alabama it is necessary. Some companies may be now allowing alternate numbers to be used, but not that I have heard of.

 

[castmemberb4]

The Dr's office may tell you they need the SS number to file an insurance claim, but they do not.
They want the SS number in the case your insurance company will not pay for the visit, the Drs office will then go after you.
Our insurance company even sent out letters telling us to NOT furnish our SS numbers and to tell the office they would not need it.
The insurance company said all the Dr office needs is the Group # and the Plan #

I am the business manager for a dentist office. I am so sick of hearing these kind of things from clueless people. Many insurance companies don't require SSN for insurance ID. Many give their subscribers a member ID but my software as well as most medical and dental software will not do electronic filing without a SSN it is a different field from the Member ID#. Therefore if you don't want to give it to us you can pay in full and file the insurance yourself. Then we don't have to deal with the headache that insurance companies cause and won't need your SSN to send you to collections when you won't pay your bill because you expected your insurance company to pay in full which they rarely do. Believe me if you had to deal with filling an insurance claim you'd gladly give up any informatiom your Drs office needs.
Vent Over !

 

[Abbie]

I am the business manager for a dentist office. I am so sick of hearing these kind of things from clueless people. Many insurance companies don't require SSN for insurance ID. Many give their subscribers a member ID but my software as well as most medical and dental software will not do electronic filing without a SSN it is a different field from the Member ID#. Therefore if you don't want to give it to us you can pay in full and file the insurance yourself. Then we don't have to deal with the headache that insurance companies cause and won't need your SSN to send you to collections when you won't pay your bill because you expected your insurance company to pay in full which they rarely do. Believe me if you had to deal with filling an insurance claim you'd gladly give up any informatiom your Drs office needs.
Vent Over !

Again, must be a regional thing, or perhaps the program you are using. We also file all claims electronically and SS#'s are NOT needed to do so. It really doesn't make people "clueless" when their experience is different from yours.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I am the business manager for a dentist office. I am so sick of hearing these kind of things from clueless people. Many insurance companies don't require SSN for insurance ID. Many give their subscribers a member ID but my software as well as most medical and dental software will not do electronic filing without a SSN it is a different field from the Member ID#. Therefore if you don't want to give it to us you can pay in full and file the insurance yourself. Then we don't have to deal with the headache that insurance companies cause and won't need your SSN to send you to collections when you won't pay your bill because you expected your insurance company to pay in full which they rarely do. Believe me if you had to deal with filling an insurance claim you'd gladly give up any informatiom your Drs office needs.
Vent Over !

Interesting. How long has that been the case? Why would there be a requirement for the SSN embedded in the software in the first place?

 

[LisaR]

I am the business manager for a dentist office. I am so sick of hearing these kind of things from clueless people. Many insurance companies don't require SSN for insurance ID. Many give their subscribers a member ID but my software as well as most medical and dental software will not do electronic filing without a SSN it is a different field from the Member ID#. Therefore if you don't want to give it to us you can pay in full and file the insurance yourself. Then we don't have to deal with the headache that insurance companies cause and won't need your SSN to send you to collections when you won't pay your bill because you expected your insurance company to pay in full which they rarely do. Believe me if you had to deal with filling an insurance claim you'd gladly give up any informatiom your Drs office needs.
Vent Over !

Nice! Well, speaking as a clueless person that did medical billing for a major health insurance company, SS# weren't even required back in the stone age. Amazing that I am so clueless, yet I have never given out my SS# or my kids. Sounds like the issue is your software that you are using. Or maybe your dental office is antiquated? I've never needed to file my own claims because I won't give out our SS# and everything has always been paid.

 

[castmemberb4]

Nice! Well, speaking as a clueless person that did medical billing for a major health insurance company, SS# weren't even required back in the stone age. Amazing that I am so clueless, yet I have never given out my SS# or my kids. Sounds like the issue is your software that you are using. Or maybe your dental office is antiquated? I've never needed to file my own claims because I won't give out our SS# and everything has always been paid.

You DID say that you give out your DH SSN b/c He is the subscriber, That's all we need the subscribers SSN we certainly don't need a SSn for a 5 year old as they probably would not have their own insurance. Our software was new to us as of Jan 09 and is the most widely used dental software in the country. Furthermore the Subscriber is generally the Guarantor and responsible for the account so it woud be the only one we'd need for collections.

 

[Mermaid02]

I am the business manager for a dentist office. I am so sick of hearing these kind of things from clueless people. Many insurance companies don't require SSN for insurance ID. Many give their subscribers a member ID but my software as well as most medical and dental software will not do electronic filing without a SSN it is a different field from the Member ID#. Therefore if you don't want to give it to us you can pay in full and file the insurance yourself. Then we don't have to deal with the headache that insurance companies cause and won't need your SSN to send you to collections when you won't pay your bill because you expected your insurance company to pay in full which they rarely do. Believe me if you had to deal with filling an insurance claim you'd gladly give up any informatiom your Drs office needs.
Vent Over !

The CLUELESS people you are talking about are your CUSTOMERS and if they had a CLUE that you felt like this about them- I'm sure they would find another office. I think you need a career change.

Our office had electronic billing as well as a totally electronic medical record- the the ss# had NOTHING to do with the billing process.

 

[LisaR]

You DID say that you give out your DH SSN b/c He is the subscriber, That's all we need the subscribers SSN we certainly don't need a SSn for a 5 year old as they probably would not have their own insurance. Our software was new to us as of Jan 09 and is the most widely used dental software in the country. Furthermore the Subscriber is generally the Guarantor and responsible for the account so it woud be the only one we'd need for collections.

Long ago, my DH's SS# was our group # when we had BC/BS. We have never had an HMO or PPO that used his SS# for that purpose. This is not the case anymore. I have wavered on that one. At times I have given it out but more and more, I do not. Again, never had a claim that wasn't paid.

And I have also never been to a doctor or dentist that doesn't ask for the SS# of the patient, even when the patient is a minor. WHY? What purpose is there to having the child's number? None.

 

[HelenePA]

You DID say that you give out your DH SSN b/c He is the subscriber, That's all we need the subscribers SSN we certainly don't need a SSn for a 5 year old as they probably would not have their own insurance. Our software was new to us as of Jan 09 and is the most widely used dental software in the country. Furthermore the Subscriber is generally the Guarantor and responsible for the account so it woud be the only one we'd need for collections.

I dont give out any SSN to any of the dr's we see. PERIOD. A dermatologist my dd was seeing wanted it but I refused. We only saw him once.. he was all about prescribing high cost new on the market meds (kick backs anyone?) that were not on our coverage. We had to call him 3 times before he'd try anything other than a 92$ shampoo he wrote for my 9 yr old... how strange a 4$ drug script worked just fine

 

[Tweevil]

Just my 2 cents here....
Med Records were often stored by SS# as it was an unique identifier. Larger hospitals are moving away from that source as the PHI and HIPAA protections came in. That may be one reason why they require it for indexing purposes.
Another reason is that some eligibility systems do a hit through an automated process using the SS number of the patient. It does a search of participating insurance companies to verify coverage. A lot of times this is automated or batch sent and helps to alleviate COB issues when patients give one insurance and may have another or coverage issues. It is true that most insurances use non SS numbers for ID's (Horizon, Aetna for example) but can fall back on SS numbers if needed as a secondary identifier.
And, I would be fibbing if I said they do not use it for collections and/or skip tracing for collection efforts.
I know that the privacy of SS numbers are very important and should be guarded at all times but I think that physicians offices (as well as hospitals and other healthcare providers) are soooo bound by regulations regarding the protection of these records that information loss should be minimal with large fines if it is breached.

Truthfully IMHO most are transitioning away from it because it is a liability to even collect it.

I hope this helps someone.....

 

[Tweevil]

This is an interesting read.....

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/privacysummary.pdf

If you go to page 3 and read on about PHI it advises when disclosure is ok and what needs to be done to de-identified health info. It also gives info when it has to be given - HHS data collection sets. These are the markers that HHS collects through the states to identify trends in health conditions. States regs are what they are commonly referred to and they are a very big part of the overal Medicare reimbursement schemes.

But, I am going off topic.....

This is a good read if you want to know how HIPAA protects you and your info.

Not that I know anything...lol