Carbon Health Urgent Care Berkeley

Austin St John

I had a fever, had a positive home covid test, and wanted to know if there was anything more I could do. I got a same-day appointment at Carbon on their website in a location close to my home. I waited maybe 5 minutes to see the medical staff, and was very well taken care of. They administered a second test to confirm my at-home test. They spent time with me explaining what to expect, and answered all my questions. I would definitely recommend this to anyone in need of urgent care.

Amy Phan

Update: in addition to having poor tech, Carbon is an unethical company that’s out to bill patients as much as possible. I scheduled an annual exam with Carbon, which is covered by my insurance. I confirmed this online and verbally confirmed this when I arrived. To my surprise, I received a bill a few weeks later. When I reached out to their billing team, they said it was coded incorrectly and will be resolved so disregard the bill. Without any update or notice after this communication, the charge went through on my card a week later. I reached out again, and they said that my visit was not qualified as an annual exam, so I had to pay out of pocket. The reason was that I had other symptoms I asked the doctor to diagnosis. Isn’t that the point of a general exam? It seems if you are not perfectly healthy during your general exam visit, be prepared to be slammed with a bill. Carbon should stay in their lane of urgent care, as they are inept to branch into the primary care space. I expected a seamless experience, but it has been a complete waste of time. To expedite my first visit, I signed up for an online account through the Carbon app and completed a plethora of forms regarding my health (about 1.5 hours before my appointment). When my appointment was approaching, I received messages on the app from the team asking for forms to be completed, and they were the exact ones that I had completed not too long ago. (I did not, as I did not want to waste my time on a malfunctioning tech platform). During my appointment, I was repeatedly asked questions I had already answered in my forms (ex. COVID vaccines and dates). After my visit, I continued to receive messages on the app from the team to complete forms I had already completed. No one can answer my questions as to where my previously completed forms went. Overall, Carbon Health is selling the illusion of being a tech-oriented medical platform, but in actuality creates much more inefficiency and wasted time. It would have been better for me to use a traditional health care provider and answer the questions once in-person, as opposed to being tricked into thinking I was saving time only to waste more of it. The visit itself was okay.

Ettore Santi

This was probably my worst experience with a health care facility. Everything went wrong from beginning to the end. Tang Center had referred me to this clinic to check something that could have required urgent treatment. After waiting for about one hour in CH waiting room, I was finally able to see a doctor. The visit lasted 10 minutes, in which the doctor had no idea of what my issue was, and went on speculating. The conclusion was that it is really hard to say what this is and it's best to just wait. He also prescribed me some allergy treatment that had no real connection with what I was having (nothing serious in the end), but was no harm to try... I later went to a pharmacy in Berkeley to pick up the prescription, only to find out that the Carbon Health had directed my prescription to a wrong pharmacy, located in San Francisco. I did not have time to drive to SF because I was about to miss a flight. The Berkeley pharmacy had to make several calls to Carbon Health and to my insurance to redirect the prescription to their pharmacy (let's not forget, all this was for some allergy pills that I really did not need). In other words, I wasted most of my day and almost missed my flight. Cherry on top: five moths later, I receive a bill of 230$ (originally 720, "kindly" discounted to 230) for this visit. Why? Because Carbon Health had billed the wrong insurance, which of course had denied the claim. Hours spent on the phone with both Carbon Health and my insurance finally led to the refund of the 230$ (that had already been taken from my card!). I knew health clinics could be bad, but I would never have thought they could be that bad. Please avoid if you can.

Ton T

I had some challenges with the check-in folks and their procedures, but the medical professional I met was very helpful and insightful. The place allows walk-in’s but that window may be limited especially during the Covid restrictions. Call first if you have questions.