Cosmetic Surgery: Promises and Pitfalls™

Medi-Spas: Live Longer and Look Good

PROMISES The promise of medical benefits (living longer and looking better) through the services offered in a spa is appealing. Medi-spas offer actual medical treatments in addition to conventional the usual spa treatments.   PITFALLS Cost: Clients pay a premium for "medical supervision" of non-medical procedures. The results are usually temporary, requiring additional treatments and expense. Expectations: Clients of medi-spas may have unrealistic expectations of procedures recommended in this quasi-medical setting. This may result in disappointment. Effectiveness: Many spa treatments have no scientific data supporting their effectiveness. "Feel good" treatments are pleasant experiences, but should not be touted as medical treatments. Invasive procedures, including injections of fillers and Botox, are medical treatments and should be performed by qualified professionals. Surgery, just another spa service! Actual surgical procedures done in a spa environment often trivialize the potential risk of these procedures. Surgery is not just another spa treatment. Medical supervision: Although, marketed as medically supervised procedures, most spa procedures are performed by non-medical personnel, who actually may be poorly or non-supervised.   The image to the left is an actual print advertisement for adding medi-spa consultants to physician's practices.

OUR APPROACH 

Our office is a professional plastic surgery office with accredited surgical facilities. We offer the services of aestheticians who are licensed and supervised by our surgeons. Although some skin care treatments are provided, every effort is made to avoid making unsubstantiated claims for aesthetic products or services. All surgery and invasive procedures are done by our surgeons, including Botox and filler injections.
 

OVERVIEW

What is a medi-spa? A new business concept that is more spa then medi. "Any facility that presents a merger of medical practice and spa therapeutics is a medical spa" is the definition given by Spa Magazine. The same magazine also states that "Trolling for already healthy clients who want to live longer and look good doing it, medi-spas want YOU - and your cash, check, or credit card, since very few of these treatments are reimbursable by health insurers."

In a recent issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, it was pointed out that "consumers are looking for a quick fix and some pampering," while doctors are breaking into higher end services where haggling with insurance companies isn't an issue. Physicians from all realms are getting involved.

A recent report by Feedback Research Services projected medi-spas will generate $450 million in 2002, and that is just the beginning, as facilities calling themselves medi-spas are opening up everywhere. Medispas are the fastest growing segment of the $11 billion spa industry, according to the International Medical Spa Association. All services are paid in cash "without the red tape of insurance transactions."
 

WHY MEDI-SPAS IN DOCTORS OFFICES? The reasons given by advocates of this concept:

In general, this is a business decision by a medical practice, not a medical one. In an age of decreasing insurance reimbursement, Medi-spa serves as a profit center in any medical office. While the convenience factor for the patient is obvious, the problem lies in the inferred credibility that medical affiliation implies. Spa treatments in a medical setting are still just spa treatments, no better or worse than those same treatments in a spa or beauty shop.

While medical treatments in a medi-spa should be safer, this may or may not be true, depending on many factors -- including staff training and credentials, quality and maintenance of equipment, qualified medical supervision, procedures offered, etc.

 
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