Kathleen Brown

Oregon Coast Dermatology, Founder

Kathleen M. Brown MD is a Dermatologist in solo practice in Coos Bay, Oregon. She became board-certified in Dermatology in 1993 and in Internal Medicine in 1995, after completing residencies in both specialties. She practiced both specialties from 1995 through 1999, when she chose to limit her practice to Dermatology, and has now practiced Dermatology for over twenty years.

Dr. Brown is a graduate of The College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1980 (Phi Beta Kappa, with majors in Biology and Music), and Eastern Virginia School of Medicine in 1988 (Alpha Omega Alpha).

She practiced Dermatology in Virginia from 1993 to 1994 at Virginia Medical Associates, after completing a Dermatology residency in Washington, DC in 1993 (at The Washington Hospital Center). She then moved to Maryland to complete one last year of Internal Medicine training, (the first two years of Internal Medicine were at The Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine from 1988 to 1990, and the last year was at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, from 1994 to 1995). She then practiced both Internal Medicine and Dermatology in Maryland, joining the Johns Hopkins Bayview Physicians, and was appointed to the part-time teaching faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in both specialties.

In 1997, she and her family moved to the coast of Oregon to join Bay Clinic LLP, and she was a partner in the group until mid-2011. This group was a good fit. However, after passage of the Federal health care law in 2010 (ACA), and a trip to Congress with Docs4PatientCare, she saw that continuing to stay within insurance-contracted practice would make her style of medical practice impossible. Thus, she opened her own new medical practice, consistent with her values. In July, 2011, with help from her husband, Jack, she opened a direct pay Dermatology practice with a transparent fee schedule.

The new practice is designed to bill primarily by time, and to have fees that are predictable and reasonable. Patients pay for services at the end of the visit. For her patients with commercial insurance, who struggled to get reimbursed without a CPT-based fee schedule, she has advocated for them at the State legislature level. The practice of medicine is now more rewarding and less frustrating, without contracts with third party payers. The practice especially caters to those people who want top quality, personalized and customized care, along with those who care about reasonable prices.  This includes uninsured patients and those with high deductible commercial insurance. Perhaps surprisingly, she still has many patients who are Medicare beneficiaries, in spite of being a Medicare opted out physician. This trend may increase once MACRA gets implemented. 

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