What is considered protected health information (PHI)?

Protected Health Information (PHI) encompasses any individual health information that can be used to identify a person and is transmitted or stored in any form. This includes not only electronic records but also paper documents, oral communications, and any other format in which health information is communicated or maintained. The definition of PHI under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) includes a wide range of information such as names, addresses, birth dates, social security numbers, medical records, and insurance information, as long as they can be linked to the individual.

The option indicating that "aggregated health data that does not identify individuals" is not considered PHI because it falls outside the scope of identifiable information. Similarly, data that is publicly available without restriction lacks the personal identifiers necessary to categorize it as PHI. Finally, while electronic health records are indeed a form of PHI, they do not represent the entirety of what is included in the definition; therefore, limiting the definition only to electronic records would be incomplete.