Personal identifiers

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Patient identifiers are any type of health information that is “patient identifiable” such as patient demographic information that includes patient name, age, sex, address, race, etc. The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects most “individually identifiable health information” held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or medium, whether electronic, on paper, or oral (1). PHI includes patient identifiers that relate to:

• the individual’s past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition,

• the provision of health care to the individual, or

• the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual, and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe can be used to identify the individual. Protected health information includes many common identifiers (e.g., name, address, birth date, Social Security Number) when they can be associated with the health information listed above. (1)

PHI does not include patient identifiers that are used separately from any health information, and vice versa. With the absence of either types of information, the information exists as insignificant and unable to be identified with a particular patient.

References:

(1) U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Guidance Regarding Methods for De-identification of Protected Health Information in Accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/coveredentities/De-identification/guidance.html#protected