Greetings and Happy 2025. Yes, I know that's it's almost March, but it's truly been that long since I've written a blog... and I apologize! It's about time for me to get back into routines, such as blogging. The last six months have been busy, but still no excuse for me to have taken my hiatus from writing. I do enjoy blogging, not only to communicate with those of you who are kind of enough to read, but I also enjoy it as a creative outlet. I wish I had some wildly exciting news to explain why I was "busy," but simply said, day to day life just got in the way of doing some of the things I like to do! As I reflected back not just on the last year, but also on my career as a whole, I realized that the business model of a solo practice plastic surgeon is not without its challenges. The everchanging world of healthcare and medical insurance led me to make some changes as 2024 came to a close. I had already dropped certain plans in January of 2024, but I have now opted out of all plans. While this may be disappointing to some, I hope that it will allow me to focus on the cosmetic services, including the Medispa. We have so many wonderful services and products, but when energies and resources of my solo practice had to be spent with insurance precerts, chasing down insurance payments, etc., my staff and I could not focus on the things we wanted to do, namely taking care of patients. Many of you are familiar with a concierge model of medicine with primary care physicians. I do feel that this concierge model leads to better transparency in medicine, so patients can take back control of their health and understand the true cost of their healthcare. Many of my colleagues in other states went to this model years ago, and patients grew accustomed to submitting any appropriate claims themselves to insurance for reimbursement. A dear friend and colleague who practices in Northern Virginia even told me about companies that have emerged to help patients get their medical claims filed since so many physicians in the DC area opted to be "out of network." I will be looking into these so I can forward the information along if any of you are interested, since I think more and more physicians will be out of network. Speaking of the Medispa, Kelly and I want to highlight a few topics. The first has to do with disturbing rumors we have heard about some of our competitors using counterfeit products, namely for filler and neurtoxins (ie Botox). | The old adage if it's too good to be true, it's probably not true. These counterfeit injectables have led to such complications like infections. Since most of you reading this are patients of mine, I am hoping you get the message out to your friends who may not be patients of ours, since patient safety is my utmost concern. It is important for patients to question what exact product they are receiving, and if in doubt, ask to see that package labeling. In some instances, an FDA approved product may be what the provider is using, but it is a substitute for what the patient actually thinks they are getting. An example would be for a patient to think they are receiving Botox, the brand product of Allergan, but instead they are receiving Juveau. But in addition to this, some offices are actually using counterfeit products from China, which is very scary. Along the lines of "substitute" treatments, Kelly and I want to share a little story. Who doesn't want to save some money, and avoid the inconvenience of coming to a doctor's visit? And we both encourage good skin care routines at home. Kelly was intrigued by the "at home" microneedling treatments she has seen online. Many of you know by now that we like to try everything we in turn recommend for our patients. So Kelly bought one of these at home kits and her testimonial is that the needles do not go very deep, and she tried so hard to get a deep enough treatment to make it worth her while, she actually gave herself a bruise. Basically, you would need 4 of the at home treatments to come even close to a medical grade microneedling treatment. So our recommendation is to take advantage of our current microneedling sale and let us tailor the treatment to your individual skincare needs.
I would like to end with an exciting announcement. We had sent out a poll earlier this year about setting aside evening appointments. We are excited to announce that the first Wednesday of each month we will be open until 7:30! And it wouldn't be a blog if we didn't have a song. I know I have used this before, but since Kelly and I were talking over the weekend about how much we loved Talking Heads, and since this blog is like a "coming home" event, I thought this would be appropriate! Have a great rest of the week. |
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