Creating Your Abby Account: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating an Abby Health account takes about five minutes. You will be asked for your name, date of birth, email, and mobile number; a password; your Medicare card details (for bulk-billed consults); a short identity verification step; and a health profile covering current medications, allergies, and relevant history. Once your account is set up, you can book your first appointment — often available the same day. Abby appointments are bulk billed for eligible patients with a valid Medicare card. If you do not have a Medicare card, you can still create an account and book a private-billing appointment.

Before you start: what to have to hand

Five minutes is accurate if you have the following ready before you begin. If you need to go and find something halfway through, it tends to stretch to ten.

• Your Medicare card, if you have one. The 10-digit card number, your individual reference number (the small number next to your name), and the card expiry date.
• A valid ID document for identity verification: driver licence, passport, or another government-issued photo ID.
• Your mobile phone, for the verification code we send by SMS.
• A list of your current medications, including the dose, and any known allergies. The dispensing label on the packet is usually enough.
• Your pharmacy details, if you already have a regular pharmacy. If not, you can add one later.

You can create an account without all of these, but you will be prompted for them before your first appointment. Abby is an online-first clinic — not a telehealth app — and the information we collect up front is what any Australian general practice would collect when you first register as a patient. The difference is that we collect it once, store it securely, and Abby AI makes sure every clinician who sees you has access to it from the outset.

Step 1: Starting your account

From abbyhealth.app, select Sign up (or Book an appointment — both routes lead to account creation if you do not have one yet). You will be asked for:

• Your full legal name (as it appears on your Medicare card, if you have one)
• Your date of birth
• Your email address — this becomes your login
• Your mobile number — used for appointment reminders and security codes
• A password (at least 10 characters, with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols)

We send a verification code to your mobile by SMS. Enter it, and your base account is created. At this point you have an account — but not yet a Medicare-billed account or a health profile.

Step 2: Adding your Medicare card

The next step is adding your Medicare details, which are required for bulk-billed consults. Enter:

• Your 10-digit Medicare card number
• Your individual reference number (the small number next to your name on the card — 1, 2, 3, and so on, depending on your position on the card)
• Your card expiry date

We verify this information with Services Australia. If your card is expired, the reference number does not match, or your details do not align with the Medicare record (for example, if you have recently changed your name), you will be prompted to update your card with Services Australia before the consult can be bulk billed.

Abby appointments are bulk billed for eligible patients with a valid Medicare card. The full detail — including the 12-month face-to-face rule and its exemptions for remote Australians — is at is Abby bulk billed? and the 12-month face-to-face rule explained.

If you do not have a Medicare card — for example, if you are an international visitor, a temporary resident not yet eligible for Medicare, or your card has lapsed — you can still create an account and book a private-billing appointment. You will be told the fee before you confirm the booking.

Step 3: Identity verification

Because we are a regulated healthcare service, we need to confirm that the person creating the account is who they say they are. This is a one-off step, and it takes about a minute.

You can verify with any one of:

• Australian driver licence (number and card number)
• Passport (Australian or international)
• Other government-issued photo ID

In some cases we may also ask you to take a short selfie photo so we can match it to your ID. This is a standard identity check used across Australian financial and health services, and the images are stored securely under the same framework as the rest of your data. Your data privacy, where it is stored, and who can see it are set out in full at your data at Abby: where it's stored, who sees it.

Identity verification exists to protect you. It is how Abby prevents someone else creating an account in your name or accessing your record. It is also how we make sure the Medicare number being used for billing belongs to the person using it. For the parallel list of what Abby will never ask you to do — including never asking for your Medicare PIN or bank login credentials — see what Abby will never ask you to do.

Step 4: Your health profile

Your health profile is the short clinical summary that lets any clinician in the Abby care network start informed. You are asked for:

• Current medications. Name, dose, and how often you take each one. Include over-the-counter medications and supplements.
• Allergies. Medication allergies, food allergies, and the reaction.
• Ongoing conditions. Anything you are currently being treated for or monitored for (diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, mental-health conditions, and so on).
• Significant past medical history. Surgeries, hospital admissions, previous major illnesses.
• Family history, where it is clinically relevant.
• Lifestyle information, where you are comfortable — smoking, alcohol, activity, and anything else you want the clinician to know.

This information becomes the foundation of your record. Abby AI, our medical AI, uses your health profile to prepare a consult-ready brief before every appointment — so your clinician starts with the context already in front of them, rather than asking you to repeat it. Abby AI is a decision-support tool. It never diagnoses or prescribes. The full explanation is at what Abby AI is: decision support explained, and how your history travels with you between consults is at how Abby remembers you: continuity of care.

You do not need to complete every field to book your first appointment. You can fill in the basics (medications and allergies) and add to your profile over time. Most profiles become more complete after the first one or two consults, as the clinician updates the record based on the conversation.

Step 5: Booking your first appointment

Once your account is set up, you can book your first appointment. Abby runs two appointment flows:

Scheduled appointments. Pick a clinician, pick a time, and the slot is held for you. This is the best option for anything that is not urgent, and particularly for more complex conversations (ongoing conditions, mental health, care planning). You see who you are seeing, and their availability, before you commit.

First Available. A short queue for the next available clinician, capped at 15 people. Best for simpler needs — for example, medical certificates, straightforward repeat prescriptions, or follow-up on a specific result — where the priority is speed rather than a specific clinician. The queue exists partly to fill unused capacity when scheduled patients do not attend (our no-show rate sits at approximately 8%, Abby Health internal data, Q1 2026).

Which flow is right for you depends on the consult. A good rule of thumb: if you would like the same clinician you saw last time, choose a scheduled appointment. The rebook rate at Abby is 71% — three in four patients see the same clinician again (Abby Health internal data, Q1 2026). Continuity of care is what the care network is built to deliver.

Before you book, it is worth being sure telehealth is the right fit for what you need. An honest summary of what telehealth can and can't safely cover is at what telehealth can't do: safety limits and when telehealth is right for you.

Step 6: What to expect in your first consult

Your first Abby appointment is likely to feel slightly different from a walk-in consultation at a new clinic — in a good way. Because Abby AI has prepared a brief for the clinician, you probably will not spend the first five minutes going through your history from scratch. The clinician will already have seen your current medications, allergies, ongoing conditions, and any flagged risk signals. Your time is spent on what has changed and what you need today.

The clinician will introduce themselves, confirm who they are speaking with, and walk you through what they have already been briefed on — so you can correct anything wrong or add anything missing. Then they will move into the consult proper.

A few practical tips for the consult itself:

• Be in a quiet, private, well-lit space. Camera at eye level, microphone working. A full pre-consult checklist is at how to prepare for your telehealth appointment: a checklist.
• Have your medication packets nearby in case the clinician wants to check a dose.
• Write down your questions before the call. People almost always forget one.
• If a support person is with you, tell the clinician at the start of the call who they are and why.

At the end of the consult, you will have a written summary in your Abby account — the plan, any prescriptions, any referrals, any follow-ups. You do not need to remember everything in the moment.

Who you will be seeing

The Abby care network includes Specialist GPs and Nurse Practitioners. All Abby Health practitioners hold current AHPRA registration. Clinical governance is led by Dr Bosco Wu, Clinical Director and member of the AMA NSW Council, and by Dr Ramu Nachiappan, Chief Medical Officer. The full picture — credentialling, ongoing audit, peer review — is at how Abby clinicians are vetted and registered, and the plain-English explanation of each role is at who are Abby's practitioners, what makes a Specialist GP in Australia, and what a Nurse Practitioner is in Australia.

Clinical standards across Australian general practice are set by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and Medicare telehealth policy is maintained by the Department of Health and Aged Care.

Signing up when you need support with the process

If you need help with any step of creating your account, please get in touch via the support link in the footer of abbyhealth.app. We can help with identity verification, Medicare troubles, or working through the form with you.

If you are in crisis right now, please do not wait to complete account creation. Go straight to if you're in crisis: immediate support, or call 000 for emergencies, Lifeline on 13 11 14, or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

Frequently asked questions

How long does sign-up take?

About five minutes if you have your Medicare card, an ID document, and your current medications list to hand. Closer to ten minutes if you need to stop and find things.

Do I need a Medicare card to create an account?

No. You can create an account without a Medicare card and book a private-billing appointment. Abby appointments are bulk billed for eligible patients with a valid Medicare card — without one, you will be told the private fee before you confirm the booking.

Can I create an account for my child?

Yes, under guardian rules. Parents and guardians can manage accounts for dependent children within the same Abby family account structure. For full detail, see the family-accounts article in the Care For You hub.

Is my information secure?

Your Abby data is stored in Australia, on Australian-hosted infrastructure, under the Australian Privacy Principles. Only clinicians and clinical staff directly involved in your care can access your record. The full explanation — where your data is stored, who sees it, what Abby AI can see, and your rights — is at your data at Abby: where it's stored, who sees it.

Find Comfort. Abby Health. Care that understands you.