By Alex Thiersch, CEO of the American Med Spa Association

Bad outcomes and patient injuries in medical spas are appearing in more and more headlines across the country. It is evident to many who work in the medical spa industry that there are a number of grey areas in the rules and regulations that govern it, and that certain unscrupulous medical spa owners and operators exploit these inconsistencies while sacrificing quality patient care to make money. Media pieces highlighting these bad actors in the industry are appearing with increasing regularity, and even the Doctor Oz show recently highlighted "Rogue Med Spas" that endanger patient safety. These reports express the industry's problems to the public and, when the public catches wind of a health issue, you can bet that local, state and federal regulators will need to address it sooner or later.

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The days of the medical spa industry being the "wild west" are likely coming to an end. So if your practice is not entirely compliant with your state's medical statutes, it is certainly in your best interest to identify the ways in which it falls short and address them as soon as possible.

AmSpa members can check their state's medical aesthetic legal summary to find the laws governing their practice.

The Truth

Stories such as the Doctor Oz report are not positive for the medical spa industry, but they're not necessarily hatchet jobs, either—many medical spas are, in fact, operating illegally, and untrained, unqualified employees are burning patients with lasers, among other potentially serious violations.

Medical spas and laser centers have become so popular—and so profitable—that some owners and operators rush to open them and, as a result, they are often not properly formed and not compliant with state and local statutes. Traditionally, there has not been a great deal of enforcement of these violations, but this is changing.

Medical spas have become so prevalent that state regulatory agencies simply cannot ignore them anymore. As is seen in the rise of media coverage of these issues, patients who suffer unforeseen outcomes will not hesitate to complain to the media. Personal injury attorneys have also picked up on the trend—you may have noticed television commercials and print ads calling for clients to sue medical spas and laser centers. The story is out there, and it only takes one aggrieved patient to cause a medical spa's world to come crashing down.

Although it is undeniable that there is a certain level of non-compliance that exists in the medical spa industry, medical spa owners and operators need to be asking themselves how they can start becoming an industry that regulates itself, so that they don't have these types of continuing issues with state regulators.

Creating Compliance

To start on the road to compliance, medical spa owners and operators should take the following steps.

1. Know the law. While there are grey areas, many answers can be found in state's practice acts with just a little bit of searching.
2. Reach out to local health care attorneys for evaluation. Most medical spas only contact a lawyer when they're already in trouble, not at the front end where the lawyer can help prevent trouble down the road.
3. Work toward understanding. You goal should be to understand the basic core principles regarding medical practice and realize that, while this is a lucrative industry that is often quite safe, there is still some level of danger.

AmSpa pledges to continue its efforts to educate medical spa owners and operators to make sure that they are operating in compliance with the law. It also aspires to educate the public in order for them to understand the difference between a medical spa that is compliant and one that is not, as well as inform them about what the treatments offered by medical spas actually entail. AmSpa is also pushing for standardization of laser training across the industry—in some states, there are no training requirements, and a lack of proper training can lead to outcomes such as the ones that Doctor Oz aired to the general public.

The industry needs to come together to discuss how it should be regulated, as it is clearly growing and is not going away. There is some guidance in the laws as they are written, but the states do not do a particularly good job in educating the public about what they say and mean. Still, enforcement is ramping up, and medical spa owners and operators must be properly prepared in order to comply and avoid more negative media coverage in the future.

Attend an AmSpa Medical Spa & Aesthetic Boot Camp to learn how to build and run your medical spa to be profitable and compliant with all of the laws in your state.