Protected Health Information (PHI)

For use under the HIPAA Policies of the University of Colorado

Protected Health Information (PHI) is a person or patient's information related to:

Excludes employment records and education records (think HR/FERPA)

PHI can be shared without a patient’s authorization for purposes of:

   T-reatment

   P-ayment

     Healthcare O-perations

18 identifiers that can connect an individual to their PHI

Remember, per the definition above, PHI is not limited to these 18 identifiers

1. Names;
2. All geographical subdivisions smaller than a State, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a zip code, if according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of the Census: (1) The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and (2) The initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000;
3. All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of age 90 or older;
4. Telephone numbers;
5. Fax numbers;
6. E-mail addresses;
7. Social Security numbers;
8. Medical records numbers;
9. Health plan beneficiary numbers;
10. Account numbers;
11. Certificate/license numbers;
12. Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plates;
13. Device identifiers and serial numbers;
14. Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs);
15. Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers;
16. Biometric identifiers (including finger and voice prints);
17. Full face photographic images and any comparable images; and,
18. Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code (with some exceptions and requirements).

HIPAA Contacts