Clinic FAQ
If you have a question, we probably have the answer listed here. Click on the little plus sign at the end of the question to see the answer. If you don’t find your answer, please call us at (510)-642-2020, or email us. We’d be happy to speak with you!
Yes, eyewear appointments required.
The hours for all of our clinics are listed on our locations page. It's good to also check our Schedule Alert page before you drop in to see if there are any schedule changes due to campus events, such as football games.
We have three clinics on the Berkeley campus, and one in San Francisco that is specifically for our low vision patients. Addresses and maps are provided on our locations page.
We accept a number of different insurance types, including UC Berkeley student insurance. Visit our Fees and Insurance page for for more information.
Patients without insurance can self-pay for both exams and eyewear. See our Fees and Insurance page for more information.
Patients can receive their prescription via mail, fax, or email, however, consent is required to send medical information in this way. You need to call our clinic to confirm your contact information and request that a copy be sent to you.
You can call us at: (510) 642-2020
To receive medical records, HIPAA compliance requires patients to provide a records request form. A copy of a blank records request form can be found on the forms page of our website. It is listed as a 'Medical Records Authorization Form'. You can either fax or email a copy of the completed form to our location. We can either fax or mail the records to you, but they can't be emailed for privacy reasons.
You can order contacts either in person or over the phone. Contact lens prescriptions are valid for one year and we can only order enough contacts to last until that expiration date (i.e. if your prescription expires in one month, we cannot order a full year supply at that time).
When you call in to our clinic to place an order, you will have to pay for the materials at that time. If you want you contacts shipped directly to you, verbal consent to our shipping policy is required that states that we are not responsible if the lenses are lost or stolen after we have placed the order.
Shipping is free for soft contact lenses and is $15.00 for hard lenses.
You can call us at: (510) 642-2020
Glasses orders take at least 2-3 weeks to be completed and received from the lab. Occasionally they come in more quickly than that, but do not expect your glasses to arrive before that 2-3 week estimate.
Contact lens orders generally take 2-3 business days when shipped to the clinic and ship-to-patient orders are generally expected 5-7 business days after the order is submitted. Orders are generally submitted the day after the order is paid for. Tracking numbers for contact lens orders being shipped to a patient are not available until 2-3 days after the order is submitted. If a patient would like a tracking number, they would have to contact us after that period.
To receive a refill for a medical prescription, please contact your pharmacy and have them submit a refill request to us via fax. If you need a copy of your medication prescription, we can either mail it or fax it to you, or we can email with the patients consent after they are informed that our email is not HIPAA compliant.
Our fax number is (510) 642 - 8012
As a teaching institution, our clinical team is composed of optometry students, resident doctors, and staff doctors. The exam will largely be conducted by a student clinician and is overseen by a resident or staff doctor. Learn more on our What to Expect page.
Patients can request to be seen by the same doctor, and, as long as we have that doctor's schedule available, we can schedule you for that doctor. We cannot guarantee that they will see the same student as student schedules change regularly.
Patients cannot directly email our doctors unless the doctor has personally provided them with an email address. Otherwise, patients can email clinic administration and their message will be forwarded to the appropriate doctor.
This depends on the particular clinic.
To be seen in our Sports Vision Clinic for a Post Concussion Evaluation, we do prefer to have a referral from the patient's medical doctor.
Referrals are not required for the Binocular Vision Clinic, Dry Eye Clinic, Infant/Toddler Clinic, Low Vision Clinic, Myopia Control Clinic, Ocular Disease Clinic, Refractive Surgery Center, Sjogren's Clinic, Specialty Contact Lens Clinic, or the Special Visual Assessment Clinic.
For the Vision Functions Clinic, the majority of patients are referred by other eye care providers (ophthalmologists and optometrists). However, a referral is not needed for an individual to be evaluated in Vision Function Clinic.
While patients do not need a referral to be seen for a Myopia Control Clinic, they do need to be seen by for a Myopia Control Consultation prior to their being fitted for lenses, and they do need a glasses prescription from an exam less than three months prior to this appointment.
Our fax number is (510) 642-8012.