How new Florida rules for liposuction, including Brazilian butt lifts, can protect you
A new law signed this month creates a few consumer protections for patients of doctors who perform liposuction, including Brazilian butt lifts, and the office surgery centers out of which many of those doctors work.
Here’s what to know about HB 1561, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 11:
Fat removal
▪ New law: Doctors doing lipo procedures involving more than 1,000 cc of supernatant fat, temporarily or permanently, must register their offices with the Florida Department of Health.
The change: Before, this was a requirement only if that amount of fat was removed permanently.
Effect: Adding “temporarily” makes it a requirement for office surgery centers that do Brazilian butt lifts or BBLs, which involve moving fat from another part of the body to the buttocks.
READ MORE: Will Florida and its taxpayers see the millions of dollars Stewart Health owes?
Office surgery fines
▪ New law: A doctor who performs a liposuction procedure involving the removal of more than 1,000 cc of supernatant fat, a Level II or III office surgery, that isn’t in an office surgery center registered with the Florida Department of Health, can be fined $5,000 per procedure.
The change: The fine used to be limited to $5,000 per day.
Effect: Doctors violating the law are risking a lot more out of pocket. One day of three surgeries in an unregistered surgery center could cost a doctor $15,000 that day alone.
READ MORE: Insurance paid $1 million after a death at Kendall regional. What about the doctor?
Liability coverage for butt lifts
▪ New law: Doctors performing gluteal fat grafting, the medical term for Brazilian butt lifts, have to have professional liability coverage of at least $250,000 per claim and at least $750,000 annually. Or, they have to get and maintain an “unexpired, irrevocable letter of credit” for the above amounts.
The change: Liposuction doctors can no longer go without coverage, otherwise known as “going bare.” As Tampa’s Palmer Lopez law firm notes on its website, “Typically, doctors who practice medicine in hospitals carry insurance policies, as do the hospitals themselves. However, private practitioners, and especially those who offer discounted cosmetic surgery, frequently do not carry medical malpractice insurance.”
Effect: Consumers have a better shot at getting something out of a judgment if things go wrong and they file a successful lawsuit. It’s not uncommon for doctors to work without coverage, then, if they see a lawsuit coming, engage in various financial maneuvers to keep their money from going to the patients they’ve injured.
Surgery center coverage
New law: “Physician offices in which one or more physicians perform gluteal fat grafting procedures” must establish the same financial responsibility as above.
The change: Office surgery centers can no longer fail to carry coverage.
Effect: There’s more recourse for consumers. It’s also harder for surgery centers to keep the doctors who perform there at arm’s length when something goes wrong. West Miami-Dade’s Xiluet Plastic Surgery, for example, is using as a defense in a pending lawsuit that the doctor in a woman’s surgery was “an independent contractor” for whom Xiluet “does not supervise, manage, nor control his rendition of medical care.”
