# PHI Detector - More on Nightfall's HIPAA Compliance Detector

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law protecting the disclosure of individuals' health information (aka ***protected health information*** or ***PHI***).

**Nightfall's PHI detector** identifies PHI with high accuracy and relevancy using 15 PII and healthcare entity detectors combined, as described in Tables 1 & 2.

Table 1: *Nightfall PHI* *detector* = *Nightfall PII + Healthcare detectors in specfic combinations*

<table><thead><tr><th>PII Group 1</th><th>PII Group 2</th><th>PII Group 3</th><th width="68" align="center">+</th><th>Health Indicator</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>One or more</td><td>Both</td><td>Both</td><td align="center"><br>+</td><td>One or more</td></tr><tr><td><p></p><ul><li>US Social Security Number (SSN)</li><li>Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)</li><li>Device Identifiers</li><li>Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI)</li><li>US Health Insurance Claim Number</li><li>US Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)</li></ul></td><td><ul><li>Person Name</li><li>Date of Birth</li></ul></td><td><ul><li>Person Name</li><li>Street Address</li></ul></td><td align="center"><br>+</td><td><p></p><ul><li>ICD10 Code</li><li>ICD10 Description</li><li>Nation Provider Identifier (NPI)</li><li>FDA Drug Name</li><li>FDA Drug Code</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>

Please refer to the [Nightfall Detector Glossary](/detection_platform/detection_glossary.md) for more information on the individual detectors above.&#x20;

Table 2: *Nightfall PHI detection confidence*

| Detection         | Combination Logic                                                                            |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| PHI (Very Likely) | PII Group 1, 2, or 3 *AND* a Health Identifier are found, all with *Very Likely* confidence. |
| PHI (Likely)      | PII Group 1, 2, or 3 *AND* a Health Identifier are found, some with *Likely* confidence.     |


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