[Philmont]: re: Social Security Number & Medical Form

A possible reason for requesting a Social Security number is the same as that used by the healthcare industry:

Whenever you seek admission into a hospital or healthcare provider one of the first things they ask for is your SSN.

Hospitals routinely use this as an identifier. Does this make it right? No, it doesn't. It just makes the hospital administrator's life easier.

So, how does this relate to Philmont's medical form? In 2001 our Lead Advisor had to leave the trail due to kidney stones. He was taken to the hospital in Taos and he told us later that, due the pain, the only thing the hospital staff had to go from was his Philmont medical form.

As an accountant, I am fully aware of what can be done with your SSN & DOB (both of which are on the medical form). Identity theft is a very real problem in our information- & technology-based society. In the wrong hands this information is deadly.

As the Lead Advisor this year I, too, am faced with reluctance to reveal this information. Not just from parents, but myself. It is not encouraging to read that Philmont's staff cannot or will not provide definitive guidance.

Perhaps the best suggestion so far is to leave that space blank, and carry a separate list of SSns to provide only upon demand from an authorized staff member.

Guy Murtha
812E-1
21 days to go

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Received on Thu Jul 22 09:35:38 2004