What does Personal Health Information (PHI) include?

Personal Health Information (PHI) encompasses any information about an individual's health status, health care provision, or payment for health care that can be linked to that individual. This means it includes any data that can identify a person, such as their name, address, health conditions, treatment records, and other unique identifiers.

The focus on individually identifiable health information is crucial because it emphasizes the specific nature of PHI. It must relate to an individual rather than a group, thus protecting personal privacy and ensuring that the information is treated with confidentiality in compliance with regulations like the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada.

In contrast, details like group health insurance are broader and include information that does not identify individuals specifically. General public health statistics and the medical history of the general population pertain to aggregated data or general trends rather than specifics tied to an individual person's health or treatment. Therefore, those options do not qualify as PHI, which is why the identification of individually identifiable health information is the correct answer.