Primary Care through UCSF Health

Students should schedule a 15-minute phone call with the primary care navigator team. 

The New Patient Navigator will complete the registration and scheduling process with you. 

Please do not wait to register with UCSF Health. Registering early is the best way to get access to primary care services.

A UCSF Health primary care New Patient Navigator will talk about the various options for clinic locations and different providers available at each clinic. 

Once the student has selected a primary care provider (PCP), the navigator will help schedule the student’s new patient appointment. If the student identifies a need for services sooner than when the new patient appointment occurs, the navigator will direct student to care options. 

Students can expect their new patient appointment within two weeks to two months of initiating the process. Length to appointment varies based on clinic demand and provider availability. Students will be scheduled as a priority patient population similar to UCSF employees, residents and fellows. 

Yes, check back in to establish an appointment with a navigator. Schedule a 15-minute appointment to coordinate care with the UCSF Health New Patient Navigator. You may also call the primary care navigation team at (415) 514-4408. 

If you have been seen at UCSF Health primary care within the last three years, you are still considered an established patient and can contact your PCP directly to schedule a follow-up appointment.  

Under the UC SHIP plan guidelines, you should first seek care through your designated primary care provider. They coordinate your care and treat specific conditions, providing referrals to specialists when needed. Except for emergency care, UC SHIP requires you to obtain a referral from UCSF Health Primary Care for outside medical care. 

Start the patient registration process right away to have access to UCSF Health providers. Schedule a 15-minute appointment. 

Don’t wait to register as a UCSF Health patient, your first UCSF Health appointment date is based on the primary care location requested and availability. Appointments are finite so the earlier you start the process, the more options you are likely to have. 

Subsequent appointments will be scheduled online via the UCSF Health patient portal or you can contact your home clinic and schedule by phone.  

With access to the entire network of UCSF primary care physicians across all UCSF Health clinics, students have far more options in terms of providers and appointment times. Understanding that students have rigorous curriculums, clinical rotations, and lab demands, UCSF Health will streamline scheduling for new patients through a dedicated team of Patient Navigators. 

UCSF Health clinics hold a certain number of appointments for same-day and next-day care for patients with acute issues. The number of same-day appointments fluctuates over the course of the year.

For evening, weekend, and holiday urgent care appointments, contact Screening and Acute Care Clinic via telephone at (415) 353-2602, or schedule online at Screening & Acute Care Clinic | UCSF Health.

Students can indicate their location and provider preferences when speaking with a New Patient Navigator during scheduling.

To maintain continuity of care between provider and patient, UCSF Health discourages patients from switching providers frequently, but can accommodate such requests.  

If you need urgent care, you may go to Urgent Care at Bayfront, the UCSF Screening and Acute Care Clinic or find an urgent care center within the your health insurance network. Consult your plan details for more information.

For UC SHIP, the in-network urgent care copay is $50. Students are encouraged to establish primary care at UCSF Health so that they do not need to use urgent care for non-urgent conditions.

In a medical emergency, seek care from the nearest emergency department.

• For urgent care, a UC SHIP enrolled member can access care via LiveHealthOnline or find an Anthem network urgent care center in Fresno using the https://www.anthem.com/find-care/.  Copayments may apply. Check your coverage plan for more details.
• Students who waived UC SHIP and have an urgent issue may also use LiveHealthOnline or contact their insurance plan to find an in-network urgent care center. Copayments may apply. Check your coverage plan for more details.

You can find a list of clinics and some affiliates on the UCSF Health website, including primary care clinics at Mount Zion, Laurel Village, and China Basin.

Acute care is offered at UCSF Screening & Acute Care Clinic at Parnassus and urgent care when it opens later this summer at Bayfront at Mission Bay. 

Depending on the clinical issue or illness being treated, UCSF Health can offer video visits which can be conducted anywhere on campus that has a private room and an internet connection.  

All UCSF Health clinics provide care related to women’s health issues.

The UCSF Health Women’s Health Primary Care practice on the Mount Zion campus is a clinic focused on women’s health.    

Visit our site at https://transcare.ucsf.edu.  

Please note: UC SHIP enrolled students may select a Primary Care provider within the Gender Affirming Health Program as their clinician.

Yes, you may continue to receive care from your Primary Care provider at the Gender Affirming Health Program. 

Yes, you may continue to receive care from your Primary Care provider at the Gender Affirming Health Program. 

Mental health services, including psychiatry, are available at Student Mental Health and Wellbeing.

UCSF PCPs can order labs to be drawn at Quest or LabCorp as an alternative to UCSF upon request. Deductible and coinsurance will apply. 

Sometimes insurance companies require additional information or documentation from a physician. Usually, common lab tests from primary care physicians are generally straightforward.  

Students can request TB screenings and immunization authorizations through their primary care provider. UCSF Health primary care clinics offer nurse visits for routine vaccinations like influenza.

Some clinics have nurse-scheduled visits where you can receive screenings for sexually-transmitted infections. UCSF Health cannot always guarantee walk-ins but they recommend sending a message through the patient portal in the event that you need a screening quickly without a PCP visit.  

You have control over what primary care physician you see. You can inform your educational program that you have a conflict of interest with a faculty member and cannot be assigned to educational experiences with them.  

There are very strict guardrails in UCSF Health’s APeX medical record system that add an extra layer of confidentiality. There will be a student/trainee designation on APEX that alerts all that the record must be treated in a special manner. When accessing student and employee records, staff and physicians must provide an extra step of validation (the “Break The Glass” functionality) to demonstrate that they have a legitimate reason to access records.   

You will determine what records are transferred from SMHW to your new primary care provider and will be required to consent to that transfer before it occurs. This is part of the registration process to establish care at UCSF Health.

In the UCSF Health confidentiality process, we only ask for those records that we need. Just like you might transfer from another physician, your new physician will ask for specific dates and only the necessary health issues that need to be transferred. 

All students are required to have health insurance. UCSF students are automatically enrolled in UC SHIP and must submit an application meeting all criteria to be approved for a waiver from the student insurance plan. If approved for a waiver from UC SHIP, you demonstrated you had an active, alternate health insurance plan.

UCSF Health has contracts with many health insurance companies – ranging from preferred provider organizations (PPOs) to health maintenance organizations (HMOs) – to provide specialized inpatient and outpatient care.

To find out whether the plan you waived UC SHIP with allows unrestricted, restricted, or no access to care at UCSF Health, please ask your health insurance company or your employer's benefit manager.

If you do not have UC SHIP or your own private insurance, UCSF Health will work with Student Mental Health and Wellbeing to help you sign up for UC SHIP. This program meets the required conditions of your status as a student.   

The Medi-Cal program requires insured members to be enrolled in a Medi-Cal managed plan as well as receive health care services in the county in which they reside. The exception is for emergencies. UCSF Health Primary Care accepts the Medi-Cal programs San Francisco Health Plan and Anthem Blue Cross Medi-Cal plans that are San Francisco-based. Other Medi-Cal plans must first authorize a referral for a patient to get care from UCSF covered by insurance (in San Francisco or from another county). 

Students in San Francisco who opt into a Medi-Cal plan through Kaiser access their primary care services through one of the Kaiser locations.

Students unsure of whether UCSF Health accepts their insurance can call the number on the back of their insurance ID card to confirm if UCSF Health is within network for their plan.

For more information, visit these pages on ucsfhealth.org:  Insurance and Billing and Health Insurance Plans/Companies. 

As a non-academic enrollment condition, all students must have insurance while participating in their program. The insurance enrollment is automatic. The waiver application is the process to waive the student insurance plan if other active coverage meeting all criteria is submitted by the waiver deadline. The enrollment and waiver application process will continue to be supported by the UCSF student insurance office.  That process will not change. 

Student Mental Health and Wellbeing staff members can provide support for questions related to insurance benefits, complex billing issues, and insurance enrollments.    

Your primary care physician can provide multiple referrals with one primary care appointment.  The cost for each appointment will depend on the services that are associated with that appointment.   

UC SHIP can authorize referrals for students throughout the country. 

Please note: For insurance coverage, a referral for an out-of-state provider is required from UCSF Health for UC SHIP students.

The majority of specialty departments at UCSF require referrals to ensure patients are scheduled with the right provider based on their clinical history.  

UCSF Department of Gynecology does require a referral for all appointments so that they can offer an appointment with the appropriate clinician based on the reason for the visit and clinical history.  

UCSF Health offers same-day or same-week appointments for acute issues for established patients. UCSF Health does not offer same-day appointments for new patient appointments. 

Students may schedule an appointment in the Screening and Acute Care Clinic on an urgent basis (same day) or up to 48 hours in advance if they need to see a provider at an earlier time than they are able to establish a PCP. Our providers are able to refer students to a specialty care clinic if necessary.