> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.a2v2.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Set Up a Medical Agent & the BAA
> Create a Medical Agent, agree to the Business Associate Agreement, and understand the HIPAA models and publish gate that come with it.
Setting up a Medical Agent takes a minute: you pick the agent type, agree to the Business
Associate Agreement (BAA), and name it. From there you can build and test privately right
away — the BAA only needs to be active before you make the agent public for patients.
This page covers creating the agent, the BAA flow, the HIPAA model restriction, and the
publish gate. For what a Medical Agent unlocks, see [Medical Agents](/medical/overview).
## Prerequisites
* A signed-in account with an available agent slot (see [Create an agent](/building/create-agent)).
* Authority to agree to a Business Associate Agreement on behalf of your organization —
the BAA is a real contract about handling protected health information (PHI).
Creating a Medical Agent sets your **whole organization** to HIPAA-compliant. This
narrows the model list to HIPAA-eligible models for **every** agent in the org and for
document processing — not just this agent. It's expected, and deleting the agent later
doesn't undo it. If your org runs general agents too, confirm you want this before you
create your first Medical Agent.
## Create a Medical Agent
From the **Agents** dashboard, select **New Agent** to open the **Add Agent** dialog.
Set the **Agent Type** to **Medical Agent** — "Assist patients with health-related
questions, symptom guidance, and basic medical support through conversational AI."
A checkbox appears that you must tick to continue:
> "Are you sure you want to Add Medical Agent? Adding this feature requires your
> agreement to the Business Associate (BA) Agreement."
Ticking this both acknowledges the agreement and sends a BAA request to the A2V2.ai
team. Until it's ticked, **Continue** stays disabled.
Enter an **Agent Name**, then select **Create**. The new Medical Agent opens on its
**Sandbox**, ready for you to add knowledge, set instructions, and test it privately.
The agent type is set when you create the agent. There's no control to convert a general
agent into a Medical Agent (or the reverse) afterward, so choose the right type up front.
If you started with the wrong type, create a new agent of the correct type.
## The Business Associate Agreement (BAA)
A BAA is the contract that lets A2V2.ai handle PHI on your behalf under HIPAA. Because a
Medical Agent is built for health data, that agreement has to be in place before real
patients use it.
### How the BAA flows
When you tick the agreement checkbox while creating the agent, A2V2.ai is notified and
begins processing your BAA. The status then moves through three stages, shown on a **BAA
Agreement** tile in the agent's sidebar:
| Status | What it means |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Not Signed** | The agreement has been requested but isn't active yet. You can build and test privately. |
| **In Progress** | A2V2.ai is processing your agreement. |
| **Active** | The agreement is in place. You can now make the agent public. |
The A2V2.ai team processes the agreement as soon as possible. If you need to confirm
status or timing for your organization, reach out through your usual support channel.
The BAA is handled by the A2V2.ai team, not a self-serve toggle — ticking the box during
creation starts the request; it doesn't sign the agreement. The status advances as the
team processes it.
## HIPAA-eligible models only
A Medical Agent can only use models that are HIPAA-eligible. When you create your first
Medical Agent and the organization becomes HIPAA-compliant, the model list narrows to
those models everywhere in the org.
* The **default model** for a Medical Agent is **Claude Haiku 4.5**, which is
HIPAA-eligible and costs **1 credit per message**.
* Higher-capability HIPAA-eligible models are available in the model selector, some at a
higher credit cost per message.
* The same restriction applies to document processing across the organization.
Pick your model in the agent's model settings — the list is already filtered to eligible
models, so anything you can select is safe to use. See [Choose a model](/building/model-settings)
for how the options compare on quality, speed, and cost.
## Build now, publish when the BAA is active
You don't have to wait for the BAA to start working. The two gates work independently:
* **The clinical suite is available immediately.** As soon as the agent is a Medical
Agent, you get health tracking, prescriptions, the medications catalog, and field
encryption. See [Medical Agents](/medical/overview) for the full list.
* **Publishing waits for the BAA.** You can't make the agent public — embed it or share
it with patients — until the BAA status is **Active**.
If you try to make a Medical Agent public before the BAA is active, A2V2.ai blocks it:
"BAA agreement must be completed to make a medical agent public." Build and test privately
in the [Sandbox](/testing/sandbox) until the BAA tile shows **Active**.
## Troubleshooting
You've selected **Medical Agent** but haven't ticked the BAA agreement checkbox.
Tick it to enable **Continue**.
The BAA has to be **Active** first. Check the **BAA Agreement** tile in the agent
sidebar — if it reads **Not Signed** or **In Progress**, publishing is blocked until
it becomes **Active**.
That's expected. Creating a Medical Agent sets the whole organization to
HIPAA-compliant, so the model list is filtered to HIPAA-eligible models everywhere —
including for your general agents and document processing.
There's no way to convert an agent between types. Create a new agent with the correct
type and move your content over.
## Related
The full clinical suite a Medical Agent unlocks.
Compare the HIPAA-eligible models and their credit costs.
How A2V2.ai isolates and protects your data.
Build and test your agent privately before publishing.