This is the first step of setting up Australian insurance billing in Pabau. You’ll connect Tyro Health, add your practitioners’ Medicare provider numbers, choose which funders you claim to, and load the MBS item codes you bill so they can be attached to your services. Do this once and day-to-day claiming becomes just a couple of clicks.
NOTE: You’ll need a Tyro Health Online (THO) account and its Business Admin API key. If your practice isn’t registered with Tyro Health yet, sign up at tyrohealth.com first.
Step 1: Turn on Insurance Billing
Go to Setup → Business Details → Features and enable Insurance Billing. This reveals the insurance surfaces across Pabau — the Claims setup, the client Insurance tab, and the billing-code options on your services.
Step 2: Connect Tyro Health
Go to Setup → Claims. You’ll see a card for each claiming provider Pabau supports; choose Tyro Health and click Connect.
- Paste your Tyro Health Business Admin API key into the connect screen.
- Click Connect. Pabau verifies the key and shows Connected with your Tyro Health business name.
TIP: Your API key is stored encrypted and never leaves Pabau’s servers — the patient-facing claim window gets a short-lived token instead, so the key itself is never exposed in the browser.
Step 3: Add your provider numbers
Open the Providers tab in the Tyro Health setup. For each practitioner who bills, enter their Medicare provider number. Provider numbers in Australia are issued per practitioner, per location, so if a clinician works at more than one site, add the matching number in each location’s column.
IMPORTANT: The provider number must be one that’s registered with Services Australia for that practitioner and location, or Tyro will reject the claim. Newly-registered providers can also hit a short waiting period before Medicare accepts bulk-bill claims — that’s a Services Australia rule, not a Pabau setting.
Step 4: Choose your funders
On the Funders tab, enable the funders you claim to: Medicare (with a default bulk bill setting), DVA, and private health (via HealthPoint). You can change the funder on any individual claim — this just sets your defaults.
Step 5: Load your MBS item codes
Medicare and DVA claims are billed with MBS item numbers (the Medicare Benefits Schedule catalogue). Pabau ships the full MBS catalogue so you can search and assign them — no manual data entry.
- Go to Setup → Diagnostic & Billing Codes and open the Australia tab.
- Click the MBS tile to browse or search the catalogue (for example, item 23 for a standard consultation).
Step 6: Attach an MBS code to a service
So the right item number is claimed automatically, attach it to the service that represents that visit:
- Go to Setup → Services and open (or create) the service.
- Open the Pricing tab and expand Insurance Billing.
- Click + Add a billing code, choose MBS code, search for the item number and add it.
TIP: Set the MBS item that best represents the appointment as the service’s billing code. When you invoice that service, the item number rides straight onto the claim.
What’s next
With Tyro Health connected and your services coded, you’re ready to add insurance to a patient’s record — continue with Insurance Guide Part 2 (Australia): Client insurance setup.