The Office of Compliance

What is PHI and its 18 identifiers?

Protected Health Information (PHI) is any individually identifiable health information created or received by the University. Such information may relate to past, present, or future physical or mental health of a patient or research study participant. PHI is information that is used to identify the individual. PHI can be transmitted electronically, orally, or in writing.

  1. Patient Names
  2. Geographical Elements
  3. Dates
  4. Phone numbers
  5. Fax numbers
  6. Email addresses
  7. Social Security numbers
  8. Medical record numbers
  9. Health insurance beneficiary numbers
  10. Account numbers
  11. Certificate/license numbers
  12. Vehicle identifiers
  13. Device identifiers
  14. URLs
  15. IP address numbers
  16. Biometric identifiers
  17. Facial images
  18. Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code