Which of the following constitutes "Protected Health Information" (PHI)?

Protected Health Information (PHI) is defined under the HIPAA Privacy Rule as any information that relates to an individual's health condition, health care provision, or health payment that can be used to identify the individual. This includes a wide range of identifiable information such as names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and any other data that could potentially be linked to a specific person.

The correct response captures the essence of PHI by emphasizing the requirement that the information must be identifiable to the patient. Any health information that does not have the potential to identify an individual is not considered PHI and is, therefore, not subject to the same privacy protections outlined in HIPAA.

Other options do not meet this definition because health information that cannot identify individual patients does not qualify as PHI. Similarly, statistics on healthcare costs are typically aggregated data that does not include identifiable patient information and thus fall outside the scope of PHI. Information related solely to hospital services might be relevant in a broader healthcare context but does not in itself imply that identifiable health information is involved.