Protected Health Information or PHI, is individually identifiable health information held or transmitted in any form or medium by HIPAA covered entities and business associates, subject to certain limited exceptions.
PHI includes information, whether oral or recorded in any form or medium, that relates to the past, present or future physical, mental health, condition of an individual, the provisions of health care to an individual, or the past, present or future payment for the provision of health care to an individual.
Some examples of PHI can include: names, addresses, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, insurance details, dates of birth, and more.
Why is this important when it comes to your actuarial valuation?
The census data that KBC requests to prepare your valuation includes individually identifiable information which is classified by HIPAA as Protected Health Information (PHI). KBC takes the security of your information and PHI very seriously, and we stress the importance of uploading any documents that contain, or may contain, PHI to our secure website. At KBC, we use Citrix ShareFile which uses bank-level encryption to ensure the security of your data. When we set up an account for each of our clients on ShareFile, the client will receive emails directly from ShareFile to confirm their account information and set up a password. We also send the client an email to let them know to watch for these emails and to check their spam or junk folder should they not receive it.
If a client is still unable to access the secure website, we recommend sending the census information secured/locked via email. You should not be able to open the census file without entering a password. If you send your census this way, please send the password to open the file in a separate email, or provide us with the password via a phone call.
Always ensure to only share the minimum information necessary to accomplish an intended task/ purpose. It is important to know what PHI is to protect/safeguard you, your family, clients, staff, team and others when sharing this type of information.