California Med Spa Lawyer
California Day Spa Lawyer and Med Spa Attorney Sebastian Gibson, The Right Choice for Your Aesthetics Business. Named a Top Lawyer 13 Years in a Row. Now with Over 45 Years of Experience.
When you call California Day Spa Lawyer Sebastian Gibson for a free consultation from anywhere in California to discuss your desire to turn a day spa into a medical spa or to start a medical spa from the ground up, we’ll provide you with an easy to understand overview of what’s required for a mobile med spa or mobile IV business, a bricks and mortar California IV hydration business or medical spa or something in between. We represent registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians and physician assistants throughout California from San Francisco, Santa Rosa, San Jose and Sacramento to Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and Orange County and everywhere in between.
In just a short phone call for a free consultation you can learn how we’ve helped many other medical professionals like you with their aesthetics business and can provide the legal advice, assistance and legal agreements to get your IV hydration business or med spa up and running quickly and in compliance with California law and California Medical Board requirements. Don’t worry about needing to come to our office. We handle everything with emails and mail to save you the need to come see us.
Whether you need contracts drafted, copyright or trademark protection, corporate formation, restructuring or dissolution, or simply down to earth business advice for your medical spa or IV Hydration business, you deserve the finest in aesthetics legal services.
At the Law Offices of Sebastian Gibson, we provide legal advice, draft contracts and business agreements and provide the right corporate structures for med spas, mobile med spas, mobile IV and hydration therapy businesses for home on demand IV treatment. We also provide advice for day spas, tanning salons, cosmetologists, electrologists, and estheticians.
California Med Spa Lawyer Sebastian Gibson offers business owners with more than 45 years of representing business and corporate clients and is ready today to assist you today in your endeavors to grow and prosper without legal worries.
When you work with California Day Spa Lawyer and Med Spa Attorney Sebastian Gibson, you’re working with with an attorney who has been named a Top Lawyer in the prestigious Palm Springs Life Magazine year after year, and who’s been named a “Superb” Lawyer, their highest rating, by Avvo, which rates attorneys all across the U.S. Sebastian Gibson is one of those rare attorneys with experience not only representing small and medium sized businesses in California, but a lawyer who has also represented multi-national corporations internationally as well while working in London.
Choosing The Right California Med Spa Attorney
If you have a med spa, a mobile IV hydration business, mobile med spa or other salon business today, you have to be concerned with such legal issues as privacy rights, deceptive trade practices, interference with contractual relations, negligent misrepresentation, copyright, trademark and intellectual property infringement, false advertising, proper licensing and a California med spa lawyer and aesthetics attorney is essential.
You need to have the right business entity in California, utilize non-disclosure agreements, copyright and trademark your content, advertising, trade designs, website, art, and services, have an understanding of general business law, have the proper licensing, utilize well-drafted contracts and agreements, and avoid personal injury and medical malpractice lawsuits.
California Day Spa Lawyer and Med Spa Attorney Sebastian Gibson has been recognized by Palm Springs Life Magazine as One of the Top Lawyers of 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011. He’s been called “Brilliant” and “A Legend.” If you want a top lawyer on your side, call Sebastian Gibson today at (760) 776-1810.
If you need legal advice for your med spa, day spa, mobile IV hydration business or tanning salon business, or you’re a cosmetologist, electrologist or esthetician in need of contracts to be drafted, negotiated or reviewed, call the Law Firm of California Day Spa Lawyer and Med Spa Attorney Sebastian Gibson and put a top-rated law firm on your side protecting your best interests.
With over 45 years of experience as a highly acclaimed attorney with law degrees in both California and in Great Britain and named as a Top Lawyer for the last 13 years in a row, California Mobile IV Hydration Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is the lawyer to call for your mobile IV hydration business or med spa.
Med Spa Services – Medical Treatments
Med spas are in effect, marketing vehicles for medical procedures. They may evoke images of candles and soothing music, but in reality they are in the business of the practice of medicine. It is incumbent that med spas operate in accordance with all the provisions of the law and the regulations set forth by the California Medical Board.
Med spas provide services which include laser treatments, Botox and cosmetic filler injections and there is a tendency for the public to believe they are cosmetic rather than medical treatments.
The use of prescriptive drugs and devices, however, in the view of the Medical Board of California which licenses and disciplines physicians, surgeons and certain allied healthcare professionals in California, the practice of medicine and the same laws and regulations apply to these types of treatments.
What this means is that the standards for informed consent, delegation to health professionals, as well as responsibility and liability apply to physicians and “medical directors” associated with med spas.
Delegation of Procedures in Med Spas to Licensed Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants
While current law allows the delegation of laser treatments and injections to such licensees, the law still requires supervision by a physician.
Supervision by Med Spa Physicians
Physicians associated with a med spa remain responsible for ensuring the experience, training and education of those performing delegated functions. It is also the responsibility of the physician to examine a patient before delegating a task to a registered nurse when prescriptive drugs and devices will be used.
Med Spa Emergencies
A nurse must operate under guidelines which describe the circumstances under which a nurse must immediately communicate with the patient’s physician concerning the patient’s condition. That means the med spa physician must be immediately reachable and be within a geographical distance that enables them to effectively provide supervision and support when needed.
Med Spa Nurse Practitioners
Nurse practitioners are granted more autonomy than registered nurses. In cosmetic procedures they may be delegated the task of providing the appropriate prior examination and ordering the drug or prescriptive device when operating under appropriate guidelines and procedures.
Med Spa Physician Assistants (PAs)
The regulation of PAs are much more specific. PAs may only be delegated tasks that are part of the physician’s customary practice. If cosmetic medicine is not part of the physician’s customary practice, the physician may not supervise a PA providing cosmetic procedures.
PAs may be delegated the task of an appropriate prior examination of the patient, but there are further rules on how physicians must provide their supervision and evaluation.
Cosmetologists, Unlicensed Medical Assistants, Licensed Vocational Nurses, Electrologists and Estheticians
While cosmetologists are licensed professionals and qualified in superficial treatments such as facials and microdermabrasion, they may never inject the skin, use lasers, or perform medical-level dermabraision or skin peels.
Unlicensed medical assistants, licensed vocational nurses, cosmetologists, electrologists and estheticians may not legally perform treatments utilizing lasers or intense pulse light devices under any circumstances, nor may registered nurses or physician assistants perform them independently, without supervision of a physician.
Supervision of All Med Spa Health Professionals by the Med Spa Physician
Physicians must actually and in reality supervise, not simply lend their license to a med spa. A supervising physician who does not give direction, oversee or inspect, is not performing the task of supervising and is in violation of the law.
Qualifications of the Med Spa Physician Supervisor
Physicians may only delegate and supervise procedures that they too are capable of performing. While the law does not require board certification to perform cosmetic procedures, the physician must still have sufficient knowledge and training in the procedures being performed.
Business Arrangements With a Med Spa Physician
Under California law, laypersons or lay entities may not own any part of a medical practice. Physicians must either own the practice, or must be employed or contracted by a physician-owned practice or a medical corporation. The majority of stock in a medical corporation must be owned by California licensed physicians, with no more than 49% owned by other licensed health care professionals such as other licensed doctors, registered nurses, and licensed physicians assistants.
Other business arrangements may violate the prohibition against fee-splitting or giving any consideration for patient referrals.
Additionally, the practice of lay-owned businesses hiring medical directors is also prohibited. According to the Medical Board of California, a physician who acts as medical director of a lay-owned business is aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine.
Physicians who become employees or contractors of lay-owned med spas and violate other provisions of the laws may be disciplined for unprofessional conduct.
Permitted Shareholders in the California Med Spa Medical Corporation
Pursuant to the California Professional Corporation Act, the following persons may own shares in a California Medical Corporation. However, as a licensed medical physician must own 51% or more of the medical corporation, the other shareholders made up of these professionals may own no more than 49 % of it. The allowed types of persons who may own the remaining 49% of the medical corporation include Licensed doctors of podiatric medicine, Licensed psychologists, Registered nurses, Licensed optometrists, Licensed marriage and family therapists, Licensed clinical social workers, Licensed physician assistants, Licensed chiropractors, Licensed acupuncturists, Naturopathic doctors, Licensed professional clinical counselors, Licensed physical therapists, Licensed pharmacists, and Licensed midwives.
Management Service Organizations (MSOs)
According to the Medical Board of California, “Management Service Organizations” (MSOs) arranging for advertising, or providing medical services rather than only providing administrative staff and services for a physician’s medical practice (non-physicians exercising controls over a physician’s medical practice, even where physicians own and operate the business) are engaging in illegal conduct.”
This is the vehicle by which lay persons can be involved with a California Medical Spa. By forming a corporation or an LLC, the Medical Service Organization (which can be owned by non-medical professionals) can provide staffing to the California Medical Corporation and the Medical Director. It can lease office space, provide back office staffing (with the Medical Director still having sole responsibility in the choice of all licensed personnel), provide equipment rentals, provide input for advertising, marketing and branding without actually arranging or approving advertising, work with vendors, and provide administrative services such as billing and handling accounts payable by unlicensed persons.
The management service organization is thus the structure or entity generally utilized by lay persons which permits unlicensed persons to participate in a medical practice without being afforded a profit share. The physicians and other permitted and experienced licensed personnel as described herein on the other hand provide patient services through the professional medical corporation that they own in its entirety. A contract between the California Medical Corporation and the Medical Service Organization is then utilized to provide the terms of compensation for the involvement of the Medical Service Organization in the Medical Spa. Such contracts are called Medical Service Agreements (MSA) and must be carefully drafted to ensure compliancy with California law.
However, compensation for services, goods and office space must be at fair market value so as to ensure there is not any for-profit sharing in the med spa. The California Med Spa is prohibited from paying any percentage of its profits, gross or net, to the MSO in order to ensure that non-licensed persons are not enjoying any ownership in the medical spa which is in reality another form of a medical practice. The whole purpose of the laws governing Medical Spas in California are to ensure that unlicensed persons do not have ownership in a medical spa nor are acting in partnership with the licensed persons, the medical practice, the Medical Director or the Medical Corporation.
Med Spa Physician Responsibility and Risks
There is no legal scheme which allows physicians to collect fees for signing their name to an improper business arrangement to lend their license to an entity to practice medicine. Legally, the clients of a med spa are patients of the physician, and that arrangement comes with all the responsibilities and liability that goes with any other doctor-patient relationship.
Risks Involved for Medical Directors
First, there can be malpractice. If malpractice has occurred, the practitioners including the Medical Director may be liable in damages if a patient gets injured and files a lawsuit. Worse than that, if that’s not bad enough, the medical board for the practitioners can pursue disciplinary proceedings against the practitioners responsible.
Compliance with the rules governing medical spas and the obligations of the licensed practitioners and the medical director is essential. If a physician experienced in performing all the procedures actually performs them, the medical spa is more likely to be in compliance with California law. But if the Medical Director is never present at the site of the Medical Spa and personnel are performing procedures they are unfamiliar with or have little experience performing, the medical spa and the Medical Director are likely at risk for allowing such a situation to occur.
In terms of contracts, agreements and directives for a California med spa, there should be an overall operational plan for the spa as well as a compliance plan to remove some of the risk to a Medical Director. Safe levels of physician supervision to ensure proper patient care is critical. There should be understandable and standardized procedures for nurse practitioners and registered nurses that will be followed and not simply set forth on paper and then ignored. The physicians assistants should have a delegation of services agreement to protect the PA as well as the Medical Director and rules need to be set forth and followed regarding the dispensing of medications, and in particular any controlled substances.
In the event a medical spa is investigated, the scope of practice of every person who’s part of the Medical Director’s staff needs to be clear as to what procedures they’re allowed to perform and what to do in the event of a problem. It needs to be clear not just to any investigators but also to patients that a doctor is in charge of the medical spa and that the spa is not a front for selling services for which they are unauthorized to perform or in the practice of selling or hawking unnecessary procedures.
False or misleading advertising by a medical spa is another area of concern in this field. Making unsubstantiated or false claims about products is yet another way a medical spa can step over the line and find themselves in trouble.
Finally, the Medical Director must ensure that everyone involved with the medical spa is aware of anti-kickback statutes and fee-splitting rules, what they prohibit and understands the consequences if they violate them.
The Medical Director Has Ultimate Responsibility for Medical Decisions, Not Lay Persons In A Medical Spa
The laws and regulations which govern California Medical Spas are set up to ensure that the Medical Director who is the supervising physician must have sole control over all health care decisions. Such decisions include when referrals must be made to other physicians, not only when there’s a problem, but also when greater knowledge and experience are required, decisions involving hiring and firing of staff such as physician assistants and technicians based on their competency, coding and billing procedures, hours, medical equipment purchases or leases, advertising and other issues which affect the quality of service. Because the Medical Director has ultimate responsibility for medical decisions, it is the Medical Director’s license that’s on the line in a California Medical Spa.
Mobile Med Spas
From the perspective of cleanliness that should be a concern of not only a Medical Director and all of the licensed personnel involved with a med spa, as well as the patients for which a mobile med spa provides treatments and performs procedures, the proper way this type of operation can work is if the mobile med spa operates out of a vehicle such as a pristine Airstream coach, the inside of which looks like a medical office and which offers a level of comfort and safety to the med spa’s patients. Such vehicles are in fact being used in at least one mobile med spa in the country.
If, on the other hand, the persons planning to open a mobile med spa intend to perform procedures and treatments in the homes of the patients they visit, with the risk of allergens, dog and cat hair and in these pandemic times, the further risk of droplets in the air that can cause a Covid-19 infection, such a business plan would seem not only risky but foolhardy for both the patients and the mobile med spa licensed personnel.
California has set forth a set of regulations governing mobile med spas which need to be followed in order to be in compliance with California laws and regulations. To fully understand the laws and regulations in California governing mobile med spas, we suggest you arrange for a one hour telephone conference with Attorney Sebastian Gibson. The hourly rate we charge for such conference calls is well worth your time.
Mobile IV Hydration Infusion Therapy Treatment Businesses and Med Spas
Mobile IV hydration med spa businesses are now being formed to operate all across California. IV treatments are commonly provided to treat colds, migraines, the flu, hangovers, food poisoning, low energy, fatigue, jet lag, and chronic illnesses. The cost of an IV drip hydration therapy in a person’s home can range from less than $200 to more than $500.
A Mobile IV Hydration business or med spa must still have a medical director who oversees and supervises the registered nurses who administer IV drip hydration and who prescribes the IV treatment for a client in their home.
This requirement means that a Professional Medical Corporation must be formed with the Medical Director owning at least 51% of the shares and the remaining 49% owned by one or more other medical professionals, commonly the registered nurse who will be administering the IV therapy.
Because the rendering of fluids and vitamins is the practice of medicine, lay persons may not obtain any profits from the Professional Medical Corporation.
A lay person’s involvement in a mobile IV hydration med spa can only consist of being employed by an MSO to handle administrative matters without any possibility of partaking in the profits of the IV hydration professional medical corporation.
California Mobile IV Hydration and Med Spa Legal Requirements
California mobile IV hydration med spas require a great number of legal documents. It is common to not only have a medical director agreement, stock purchase agreements, a buy-sell agreement, and if an MSO is formed as well as a Professional Medical Corporation, an MSA agreement as well.
In addition to all of the legal contracts and time involved in forming both a Professional Medical Corporation for the medical director and the registered nurse or other medical professionals and the MSO’s LLC, creating organizational minutes, issuing shares, and creating Articles of Incorporation, an Operating Agreement and other matters, there are also licenses and permits to be obtained as well as an application to the California Medical Board for approval of the use of a fictitious name by the mobile med spa.
California Mobile IV Hydration Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has experience with all of these agreements and legal requirements and can provide much needed advice to clients interested in forming a mobile IV hydration medical spa for on demand drip hydration in a person’s home or in an IV hydration lounge in California.
When you need an experienced California Mobile IV Hydration Lawyer, call California Mobile IV Hydration Lawyer Sebastian Gibson and let us assist you with setting up your mobile IV hydration med spa business.
Medical Spas Operated by Chiropractors
For a number of reasons, there are additional risks involved for a medical director when that physician has been hired by a chiropractor to be a medical director for a California med spa.
A medical director cannot allow themselves to be in an employment arrangement which grants a chiropractor control over the physician. If the chiropractor is making the key medical decisions and thus calling the shots so to speak, the medical director has abrogated their responsibilities and the medical standard of care they must follow.
There can be additional issues if the chiropractor then performs treatments outside of their authorized scope of practice or if the chiropractor hires a nurse practitioner and uses a medical doctor’s involvement for marketing purposes by creating a setting in which patients are confused by the illusion they are in a medical office when they are primarily in a chiropractor’s office and one which may be without or with only very limited medical supervision of the procedures.
Med Spa And Mobile IV Hydration Business Lawyer, Sebastian Gibson
With your med spa or IV hydration business protected by Attorney Sebastian Gibson, you can rest easy, knowing your legal matters are in capable hands, as we take the load off your shoulders, protect your best interests and put a stop to actions that may be harming you and your business and pursue damages in litigation for any harm caused to you in California and elsewhere.
California Day Spa Lawyer and Med Spa Attorney Sebastian Gibson has been chosen one of the Top Lawyers for the past 13 years by Palm Springs Life Magazine for good reason. The author of thousands of articles on the internet, Sebastian Gibson has also written for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal newspapers and is the author of a recently published book with sales throughout the U.S.
With law degrees in both the U.S. and the U.K., Sebastian Gibson has over 45 years of experience in California and in England. He’s been frequently interviewed on radio and TV for his expertise and is widely followed on Twitter and the internet.
Choosing the right California Day Spa Lawyer and Med Spa Attorney to draft your medical spa contracts can make all the difference. Sebastian Gibson is known for his wit and humor, and has also been named as a “Superb” Lawyer by Avvo, which rates attorneys throughout the U.S.
How We Can Help With Your Legal Matters In Your Med Spa or with a Day Spa
From Palm Springs and Palm Desert, to Orange County and San Diego, our med spa expertise can be of assistance to you. We can assist you in your med spa legal matters from Los Angeles, to Santa Barbara and from San Jose to San Francisco. We assist clients in a wide range of business matters from Long Beach to Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine, from cities up and down the coast of California and inland as well as to business clients in other parts of the U.S. and internationally.
When It Matters Most, Call California Day Spa Lawyer Sebastian Gibson For Your Med Spa, Mobile IV Hydration Business Mobile Med Spa, or Aesthetics Day Spa
If you need legal assistance with your med spa, you’ll want to take advantage of our expertise. Simply call the number at the top of this page and talk directly with California Day Spa Lawyer and Med Spa Attorney Sebastian Gibson.
With offices in California in Palm Desert and Newport Beach and years of experience in London, California Day Spa Lawyer Sebastian Gibson can assist you with your med spa legal matters throughout California.
