Personal Health Information (PHI)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. Sensitive patient health information, also call Personal Health Information (PHI) includes the following categories of information:

Patient names
Geographical elements
Dates related to the health or identity of individuals
Telephone numbers
Fax numbers
Email addresses
Social security numbers
Medical record numbers
Health insurance beneficiary numbers
Account numbers
Certificate/license numbers
Vehicle identifiers
Device attributes or serial numbers
Digital identifiers, such as website URLs
IP addresses
Biometric elements, including finger, retinal, and voiceprints
Photographs of a patient’s face

Other identifying numbers or codes

Source: cdc.gov