Charisse Orme, MD, PhD

While UCSD Dermatology as a whole may not deserve five stars, Dr. Orme is truly exceptional. She’s very thorough in her examinations, very clear in her communication and exhibits willingness to attend to patients’ concerns. She seems to have a big heart which is so refreshing in the medical field. I am very happy to have finally found her and look forward to return visits, sometimes previously dreaded at this clinic.

While Dr. Orme is certainly a credible doctor, my visit to UCSD Dermatology for an annual skin check ended up being a huge mistake. To briefly explain, I ended up $1,007 out-of-pocket (insurance was billed $1600) for a 15 minute skin exam and mole removal. After 7 calls trying to resolve UCSD’s inexplicably high pricing, sitting on hold each day with the same “we’re experiencing unusually high call volume” message, it was clear that this is the worst managed clinic I’ve ever experienced. Exorbitant pricing aside, the biggest disappointment was the patient experience. Dr. Orme didn’t respond to an email inquiry I sent a month ago, and instead forwarded to her office manager, Christine Turner, who also didn’t respond. Several weeks later after continually calling, I finally got ahold of Christine on the phone, at which point she said she’d look into it and then sent me an email back. I didn’t agree with her response, but don’t have the ability to communicate back directly as the portal… blocks you from replying with a message stating “the sender has indicated that replies are not allowed.” Outstanding patient-centric support, all around. My recommendation would be to do yourself a favor, save the time and money, and go to a Dermatology clinic at Scripps that actually puts patients first. UCSD Dermatology charges are anywhere from 2-4x average costs for the same procedure elsewhere (which their billing dept readily admits). It’s disappointing that neither Dr. Orme nor her staff provided any information up-front regarding how high these out-of-pocket expense might be with insurance, and, as a father of 2, I feel it’s important to share this information with other families that don’t have spare money and time to burn.