Aesthetic Accreditation Agency Established

Recently in California, medical spas have been the target of legislation intended to regulate the medical spa industry.  Aesthetic Accreditation Agency was established in 2008 due to new legislative changes that seek to improve patient safety and the standard of care in the medical spa setting. While hospitals and surgery centers have been accredited by several organizations for decades, the aesthetic facility environment has not had a dedicated accreditation program that examines all aspects of patient safety and quality care.  Aesthetic Accreditation Agency is an accrediting and consulting program which will continually monitor and implement advances in aesthetic quality patient care. This requires constant review and revision of standards to reflect the latest changes and developments.  We are at the forefront of legislative efforts to provide patients with safety and quality assurance in the medical spa setting. Read more

California Bill could Put non-Physician Owned MedSpas out of Business

URGENT UPDATE (4-16-08) AB 2398 COSMETIC REGULATION

(Submitted by Norman C. Davis, Esq.)

The Business & Professions Committee of the State Assembly held a bill hearing on April 9, 2008 at which time the proposed AB 2398 (Amended April 1, 2008) was presented to the Committee. Unfortunately, following a brief discussion and only a few minor changes made, the bill was approved by the Committee.

An amended draft of the bill was drafted on 4-10-08 and was approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 15^th. The bill will now go to the full Assembly where it must be approved prior to May 31, 2008 in order to be sent to the Senate or it will die. Refer to the current attached draft.

This legislation is sponsored by the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, and if passed will have a monumental impact on physicians, nurses, NPs , PAs and management companies involved in the aesthetic field. Physicians who are involved in aesthetic practices on a part-time basis must be on-site, providing direct supervision of delegated procedures, and must personally provide good faith exams on all patients prior to delegation. RNs will not be allowed to perform any procedures without the physician on-site unless the treatment is performed in a physician owned office with certain restrictions. Read more

Adding cosmetic procedures lifts internists sagging incomes

A few years ago, Bill J. Johnson, ACP Member, was spending most of his day treating patients for hypertension, diabetes and other chronic ailments. But while he enjoyed his work, his income had stagnated amid tightening insurance reimbursements. That’s when he began to think about adding aesthetic procedures to his menu of services.

Dr. Johnson took the leap in 2005, starting by offering botulinum toxin injections and then dermal filler injections at his office in Grapevine, Texas, a Dallas suburb. Patients responded so well that he’s added more procedures and opened a second office, called Innovations MedSpa, devoted strictly to aesthetic medicine. In all, he’s invested about $600,000 for 11 pieces of equipment, but his aesthetics business is free of insurance hassles. Income is up “several fold.” Read more

Key Legal Issues for Medical Spas and Aesthetic Medical Practices

Key Legal Issues for Medical Spas and Aesthetic Medical Practices

Aesthetic medicine requires careful attention to the intersection of corporate practice of medicine, licensing, anti-kickback and fee-splitting considerations, and other legal and regulatory issues. This overview will help you better understand the legal implications of opening a medical spa.

Both physicians who want to either open a medical spa or add aesthetic medical procedures to their existing practice, and entrepreneurs who want to either open a medical spa or incorporate aesthetic medical procedures to a wellness center, can benefit from a better understanding of some of key legal issues involved. These legal issues are common to a variety of practices and organizations that offer emerging therapies beyond conventional medical care, whether in a medical spa or dermal clinic, a holistic health care facility, a wellness center, or an ‘integrative medicine clinic’ that includes complementary and alternative medical treatments (such as acupuncture, massage therapy, and dietary supplement recommendations) in its patient care. Read more

Understanding Staff Needs

The staff you employ can make or break your practice – period. When aesthetic patients are using their own money for elective procedures, their experience with you (and your staff) needs to be a good one – every single time. Because if it’s not, they will go where they are treated better and they’ll take their friends with them.

Frankly, your staff’s patient relations skills are just as important as your aesthetic skills when it comes to growing your aesthetic practice. Read more

United States: Botox® At the Mall? A Look At Medical Spas Under California Law

Medical Spas seem to be popping up all over these days. More and more Southern Californians, both men and women, view a Botox ® injection or laser hair reduction as a cosmetic treatment rather than as a medical procedure. Likewise, people are willing to obtain these services in the same settings they use for pedicures—in day spas or even in mall stores. Frequently, the operators of these medical spas are no more aware of the legal requirements that apply to their businesses than are their customers, as both the providers and consumers of the services see these services as esthetic in nature. But because California law defines many of the services that medical spas provide as the practice of medicine, there are numerous traps for the unwary spa operator. Read more

How to Win Back Patients you’ve Lost

You may be sitting on a gold mine and don’t even know it. I guarantee you have long-long patients in your practice who would return to you if given a chance.

If you have been in practice for even a short time, you have developed an eclectic database of various types of patients who:

•  currently visit you
•  who used to visit you but now don’t
•  who are angry at you and you don’t even know it
•  who talk badly about you
•  who would come back if you only apologized

Your database is filled with patients who took the time to call your office, set up an appointment and visit you. For whatever reason, they didn’t book a consultation, didn’t return to finish their appointments or have left your office never to return again.

Aesthetic patients are fickle consumers. Rather than a goldmine, it can be more like a mine field to understand these patients and why they chose you over all the others. Read more

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