Florida Cracks Down on Plastic Surgery Clinics

After USA Today’s exposé on the worst of Florida’s plastic surgery clinics received nationwide attention, it looks like Florida is finally taking steps to make it harder for dangerous clinics to operate.

To be fair, legislative efforts have been made since 2014 to crack down, and Florida State Senator Anitere Flores sponsored this bill before USA Today published this piece about felon-operated clinics.

On June 25, 2019, Governor DeSantis signed into law Bill CS/CS/SB 732 — Office Surgery, which will go into effect on January 1, 2020. It requires that clinics offering certain types of office surgeries (read liposuction and plastic surgery) are to comply with the same regulations and inspections as physician-run offices.

This law allows Florida to stop a clinic’s operations or revoke the clinic’s registration, and prevent offenders from opening new clinics. But is it going to be any more effective than the existing three strikes rule for Florida physicians?

History of Plastic Surgery Malpractice in Florida

South Florida, particularly Miami, has one of Florida’s highest concentrations of discount plastic surgery clinics. Unfortunately, many patients – probably more then we’ll know – discovered that they got what they paid for in dirty, poorly-run clinics. Some patients were permanently disfigured and others died in the back rooms.

Many of these clinics were run by people who were convicted of felonies or white collar crime, or i