Should programmers have access to PHI for development and testing?

Question

My responsibilities at a small company are mostly programming-related, but I also perform a number of other roles that definitely require access to PHI¹. In larger organizations with clearer delineation of responsibilities, is it prudent to provide programmers with only dummy data and never actual PHI?

_{¹ Protected Health Information, as outlined by the US legislation that governs patient privacy, HIPAA.}