HIPAA Identifiers – Examples
Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 18 specific identifiers are defined as personal information that can identify an individual.
When any of these identifiers are associated with a person's health information, medical records, or healthcare payment data, the information is classified as Protected Health Information (PHI).
To meet the HIPAA Safe Harbor method for de-identification, all 18 HIPAA identifiers must be removed before health records can be considered de-identified.
Eliminating these identifiers significantly reduces the risk of identifying an individual and allows healthcare data to be used for research, analytics, quality improvement, and other purposes while protecting patient privacy.
Similar to the options above ⤴️, discover other ways to protect HIPAA-related data in our latest article: HIPAA Compliance Checklist 2026: What US Healthcare Companies Need to Know
HIPAA data is some of the most sensitive and regulated information in the world, so we’ve prepared the FREE SAMPLE DOWNLOAD below with 1000 HIPAA EXAMPLE IDENTIFIERS.
Use these free sample examples to test your system’s sensitive data discovery abilities and whether it can even process this much information at once.
18 HIPAA Identifiers + Examples
Below you’ll find all 18 HIPAA Identifiers, complete with an example of the sort of sample data you’ll find in the free download below.
- Name: Bob Walker
- Address: 1034 Oak St, Clinton, IL 72781
- All Dates: 1/15/1972
- Phone: (204) 773-3286
- Fax: (948) 520-3078
- Email: [email protected]
- SSN (Social Security Number): 647-18-4178
- Medical Record Number: MRN86709719
- Health Plan Beneficiary Number: HP2250620XBS
- Account Number: AC6135320976
- Certificate License Number: LICYZGPFH88
- Vehicle Identifier: FSBD4V63NVJ8AUS5Q
- Device Identifier: UDI1PXH9GZTLSAH
- Web URL: https://portal19.sample.net/profile/467225
- IP Address: 31.95.238.177
- Biometric Identifier: BIO-db12e9caaef5f788fb645ac83434ca70
- Face Photo: photo_8crgb2i7.jpg
- Other Unique Identifier: 22QL8TCJS6WA3VRTR076
Download PII Dataset Examples
Click the button below to download 1000 sample HIPAA Identifiers. Happy testing!
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are the 18 HIPAA identifiers?
The HIPAA Privacy Rule defines 18 identifiers that can be used to identify an individual. These include names, addresses, dates related to an individual, telephone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, account numbers, IP addresses, biometric identifiers, full-face photographs, and other unique identifying numbers or characteristics. When these identifiers are associated with health or payment information, they become Protected Health Information (PHI).
What is Protected Health Information (PHI)?
Protected Health Information (PHI) is any individually identifiable health information that relates to a person's physical or mental health, healthcare services, or payment for healthcare. PHI can exist in electronic, paper, or verbal form and is protected under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
What is the HIPAA Safe Harbor method?
The HIPAA Safe Harbor method is one of the approved methods for de-identifying healthcare data. Under Safe Harbor, all 18 HIPAA identifiers must be removed so that the information can no longer reasonably identify an individual.
Why are HIPAA identifiers important?
HIPAA identifiers are used to determine whether healthcare information contains personally identifiable information. Organizations use these identifiers to classify sensitive data, comply with HIPAA regulations, protect patient privacy, and reduce the risk of data breaches.
Is this HIPAA dataset real patient data?
No. The downloadable dataset contains 100% synthetic sample data created for testing, demonstrations, development, and validation purposes. It does not contain information from real patients.
What can I use this HIPAA sample dataset for?
This sample dataset is designed for:
- Testing PII and PHI discovery tools
- Validating data loss prevention (DLP) solutions
- Evaluating data classification software
- Training machine learning models
- Building data masking and redaction workflows
- Demonstrating sensitive data detection capabilities
- Developing compliance and security applications
What is PII Tools?
PII Tools is sensitive data discovery software, so you can discover, analyze, and remediate PII across all your digital assets, on-premises or on your Private Cloud. Schedule a FREE DEMO and secure your PII for good!
