Plastic Surgery as an economic indicator?

We're all used to hearing the news about housing starts, retail sales, and employment figures. These are economic indicators - ways to indirectly sort out what's happening with the U.S. economy. Get this: two new studies now suggest that the workload of your friendly neighbourhood plastic surgeon may be another statistically valid way to tell how well the economy is doing.

In this month's issues of both ASJ and PRS, are studies from two separate plastic surgery groups examining this very correlation. One was from the Cleveland Clinic, the other from Loma Linda University Department of Plastic Surgery. They each found that the average surgeon revenue from cosmetic surgery procedures in their group very closely correlated with typical stock market indices, such as the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and others, at least looking retrospectively over the last few years. When their surgery income was up, so were the stock markets. When the market was down, their cosmetic surgery schedule was quiet.

If anything, the graphs suggested that Plastic Surgery activity was a leading indicator - in other words, changes here preceded the change in the economy, by about one month. This, to me, was the surprising part - I would have guessed that Surgery volume would have been a coincident or lagging indicator of the economy.

My financial advisor, Ed, always jokes with me about the "boobs & butts" index - which is his casual way of asking me how busy I am. It looks like he's right after all!

CNN article on "wanna-be" cosmetic surgeons

Here's an article from CNN Health, which talks about how many physicians are trying their hand at cosmetic medicine and cosmetic surgery, regardless of their training, board certification, or experience.

Link

It's clear that some physicians think that the "grass is greener" on the plastic surgery side of the fence...but they don't want to invest the time to train properly in plastic surgery, since that takes years. So, more and more frequently, these docs take a one-day course on saturday, then start using their new laser or liposuction machine on monday. It's a recipe for problems, and the patient is the one who suffers.

I think the most insightful quote in the article is this one, from Dr. Brent Moelleken, a plastic surgeon in California. "If patients heard about a plastic surgeon expanding his practice to include Pap smears and hysterectomies, they would be horrified. But they think little of having laser procedures or liposuction done by a gynecologist. And there is no law against either."

Remember, just because it's cosmetic doesn't mean it isn't real surgery, with real potential for complications. Do your research. Stick with experienced, credentialled surgeons who practice within their field of training. Review their before and after pictures. Talk to some other patients. Extra time taken when selecting your surgeon pays dividends later.

Capital One exits cosmetic surgery financing

Capital One is pulling out of the health care financing market -- removing one financing option for medical services. As of April 10, 2009, Capital One is not accepting any new installment loan applications for cosmetic surgery, or any other medical expenses.

If you already have an approved Capital One loan, you're OK - that won't be affected.

While understandable from a business point of view, it's too bad. Capital One provided a helpful service, and their loan plan was one of the more popular ones with many of our patients.

Medical Tourism - American Style

It occurred to me, after attending a recent meeting, that the prices of Plastic Surgery procedures here in Central Florida have remained pretty stable over the last 15 years - while most other areas have gone up significantly by comparison.

That means, out-of-town patients can fly in from the Northeast, the Midwest, or the West Coast, have their surgery with us here in sunny Orlando, staying all the while in a resort hotel - and still save a significant amount of money compared to doing the same procedure at home, while under the care of an expert Board Certified Plastic surgeon and MD anesthesiologist, in a AAAASF-certified facility.

While it is difficult to determine exact prices in different cities, a little detective work on the web found these prices for breast augmentation, as reported by patients themselves.

New York City.....................$8000-10,000
San Francisco, Dallas (tie).......$8000
Newport Beach....................$7500
National Average................$7500
Chicago............................$6500

Little ol' me..............$4999 for silicone, $3999 for saline with our fall special

You don't need to go outside the U.S. to have reasonably priced surgery. Just fly to Orlando - America's #1 family travel destination! Now that's what I call Medical Tourism - American style!!