Fox 4 journalist’s scare tactics turn on Medical Spa industry. A few weeks ago I was contacted...

...by a woman, I had never heard of, indicating that she was a Fox 4 journalist. The woman said that she had been contacted by someone who was dissatisfied with one of the services they received at a medical spa and asked me about this situation as well as our services, licensure, and compliance standards.

Soon into our conversation, it was clear that she was misinformed and uneducated about our industry. I referred her to speak with the American Medical Spa Association (AMSpa), in which I am a member in good standing. Even though she did speak with them, she seems to have twisted things a bit. In effort to ensure the public has unbiased facts, here is a direct excerpt from the American Medical Spa association authored by President & Founder, Alex Tiersch.

So while it is accurate that there are very few regulations governing medical spas in the state of Missouri, there are many reasons for this. The companies that produce the cosmetic pharmaceuticals that are used in med spas, only provide these pharmaceuticals to licensed medical professionals that are qualified and trained! These companies are heavily regulated already. Physicians and nurses are also governed & regulated by their boards and qualified to give injections based on their licensure and education.

So before everyone runs around in a panic… consider that we have medical boards and nursing boards governing how we practice. There would be much duplication of effort & overregulation should politicians try to also regulate us as well.

Undoubtedly, we should all be careful in choosing our medical providers for any service! Ask questions of those providers before choosing any medical service whether it’s elective or not elective.

Who can own a medical spa?

"Under Missouri law, a medical spa may be owned by the sole proprietorship of a licensed physician, a partnership, professional corporation (“PC”) or a limited liability company (“LLC”). Missouri has not enacted a statutory ban on the Corporate Practice of Medicine (CPOM) with respect to physicians and an attorney general opinion that stated that “a corporation may contract with a licensed physician to furnish medical services” has recently been withdrawn. Further, there is nothing in the nurse practice act that prohibits a nurse practitioner (NP) or a registered nurse (RN) from owning or having an ownership interest in a medical spa as of March 2018.

Therefore it appears that NPs or RNs may own a general entity and employ physicians to practice medicine, so long as the general entity does not interfere or control the medical judgment or decisions of the physician and other statutory prohibitions against fee-splitting, kickbacks, or self-referral are not violated. Consequently, because CPOM currently does not exist in Missouri, where no statute, board opinion or attorney general opinion restricts ownership in an entity, it leaves open the possibility that a PC or an LLC that employs a physician to perform medical services may be able to have non-physician or even unlicensed owners."