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Kokua Line

By June Watanabe

Wednesday, April 8, 1998

Social Security number
usable by stores as ID

I removed our Social Security number from our checks, and it has not gone well. For example, I discovered that at Sam's Club, I cannot use a check without giving my Social Security number to the clerk. Is it legal for a company to use my Social Security number as an identification number?

Retailers can ask for your Social Security number. It's up to you to decide whether you want to do business with a retailer who asks for something you don't want to give, said Jo Ann Uchida, executive director of the state Office of Consumer Protection.

However, the next time you go to Sam's Club and you're asked again for your Social Security number, ask to speak to a manager, a spokeswoman said.

She said there might have been a miscommunication. Clerks will ask for an ID, not necessarily a Social Security number, usually if you're cashing a check for the first time or if the computer database indicates a verification is needed, she said.

Uchida, meanwhile, passed on some interesting information from the Social Security Administration, including:

Although the Social Security Administration can't prevent others from asking you for your Social Security number, giving out the number doesn't give them access to your Social Security record. "The privacy of your record is assured, unless the information is disclosed to another agency as required by law."

Giving your Social Security number is voluntary, even when you are asked for it directly, but refusing to give it, as Uchida said, may deny you the benefit or service for which the number was requested. When someone asks for your number, you, in turn, should ask: why the number is needed, how it is going to be used, what law requires you to give your number and what the consequences are if you refuse to give it?

Check your Social Security earnings record every three years. If you find too many or too few earnings or your name is recorded incorrectly, report the error to the Social Security Administration. To check on your Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement, call, toll-free, 1-800-772-1213; or download an application form from the Internet at ssa.gov; or visit a local Social Security field office.

If you suspect someone is misusing your number, report it to the Office of Inspector General hot line: 1-800-269-0271.

We brought our daughter to Queen's Hospital emergency late one night. She was given a slip of paper with directions to the pharmacy to get prescriptions filled. My husband and I waited in the emergency room area not knowing where she was. Feeling ill, she asked some employees for directions. She still wasn't able to find the pharmacy and crying, found her way back to the emergency room. The directions were confusing, but a security guard pointed us in the right direction. Why can't a sign be posted for the ground floor pharmacy? What a terrible experience for someone feeling sick and on top of that, lost! But mahalo to the emergency room staff, from the initial nurse who checked my daughter in to the kind security guard to the employees who pointed out the correct pharmacy.

Call Queen's, which is anxious to find out what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Your daughter's experience definitely was not usual procedure, according to nurse manager Susan Orr. Prescriptions are sent via a tube system, and patients are directed to wait in the emergency room area, she said.

Also, one reason there is no sign for the pharmacy is that "we don't want to advertise it (especially after hours) for safety reasons," Orr said.

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