ATLANTA — When you go to your doctor, you are probably going to fill out paperwork.
Channel 2 Consumer Advisor Clark Howard says there’s one thing you may want to exclude from those forms.
“What’s wrong with this picture? You go to a lab you go to a hospital you go to a medical facility, a doctor’s office and what do they give you on the initial patient form? Like the third thing they want under your name and address is your social security number. And this is a terrible idea for you to fill it in on any form at any medical facility, ever,” Howard said.
Clark said roughly half of all identity theft happens at medical facilities.
So he says just leave that part of the form blank.
“The only reason they really want your social security number, dirty little secret, is so (if) there’s a problem and they’re coming after you for a bill. They have that number to turn over to a bill collector,” Howard said.
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