PHI Defined

What is PHI?

PHI stands for Protected Health Information and is used within HIPAA to describe the type of information that must never be seen by unauthorized individuals.

PHI not only refers to medical information contained in patient files but also to any note, document or record related to a patient’s treatment, including lab and insurance reports, billing and coding information, appointment times, notes and phone messages, or anything that could divulge anything about a patient’s relationship with the practitioner.


HIPAA PHI includes virtually anything that references a patient.