Plastic Surgeons in California

What California changes about cosmetic surgery

California regulates the setting as well as the surgeon. Health and Safety Code § 1248.1 provides that no entity may operate an outpatient setting in California unless it meets specified criteria, beginning with certification as an ambulatory surgical center under Medicare, with a list of exemptions covering hospitals, licensed clinics, certain physician and dentist offices, accredited outpatient settings and government facilities.

The Medical Board of California describes the accreditation standards at § 1248.15, which require appropriately licensed allied health staff, onsite emergency equipment, medication and trained personnel, a written transfer agreement with a local accredited or licensed acute care hospital, procedures performed only by physicians holding admitting privileges at such a hospital, and peer review of each licensee at least every two years. Adverse events are reportable within five days, or within twenty four hours where the threat is urgent.

What makes this usable is that the Board maintains a public, searchable Outpatient Surgery Setting database showing whether a setting’s accreditation is current, revoked, suspended, on probation or delinquent, searchable by facility name or owner. Very few states hand a patient that.

Advertising is the second California rule. Business and Professions Code § 651(h)(5)(C) allows a physician to say they limit their practice to specific fields, but bars a claim of certification by a board or association unless that body is an American Board of Medical Specialties member board, a board approved as equivalent by the licensing board before January 2019, or one with an ACGME approved postgraduate program providing complete training in the specialty. Where the term may be used, the certifying board’s full name must appear with comparable prominence.

How to choose a plastic surgeon in California

Do the two lookups before the consultation, not after. Both are free, both take minutes, and both are more informative than a gallery of before-and-after photographs.

• Search the surgeon on the Medical Board of California license lookup and read the discipline history, not just the status line.
• Search the facility separately on the Board’s Outpatient Surgery Setting database and check the accreditation is current rather than delinquent or on probation.
• Ask which board certifies the surgeon, by full name, and check it against the categories California permits in advertising.
• Ask whether the surgeon holds admitting privileges at a local acute care hospital, since that is one of the accreditation conditions for the setting.
• Ask who administers anaesthesia, what their credential is, and whether they are present for the whole procedure.
• Ask what the transfer plan is if something goes wrong, and to which hospital.
• Get the quote broken out into surgeon fee, facility fee and anaesthesia, plus what a revision would cost.

Questions to ask at the consultation

• Where will the operation take place, and is that setting accredited or licensed?
• Which board certified you, by its full name?
• Do you have admitting privileges at a local acute care hospital, and which one?
• Who gives the anaesthesia and what is their qualification?
• What is the plan if I need to be transferred mid-procedure?
• What does the fee cover, and what would a revision cost?

General information, not medical or legal advice. California advertising rules for board certification have been litigated and the statutes cited here rest on published code reproductions rather than official text, so verify a surgeon’s license, a setting’s accreditation and any certification claim directly with the Medical Board of California.