As Doctors Cater to Looks, Skin Patients Wait

[RedEarth]

Dr. Donald Richey, a dermatologist in Chico, Calif., has two office telephone numbers: calls to the number for patients seeking an appointment for skin conditions like acne and psoriasis often go straight to voice mail, but a full-time staff member fields calls on the dedicated line for cosmetic patients seeking beauty treatments like Botox.

Dr. Richey has two waiting rooms. The medical patients’ waiting room is comfortable, but the lounge for cosmetic clients is luxurious, with soft music and flowers.

And he has two kinds of treatment rooms: clinical-looking for skin disease patients, soothing for cosmetic laser patients.

“Cosmetic patients have a much more private environment than general medical patients because they expect that,” said Dr. Richey, who estimated that he spent about 40 percent of his time treating cosmetic patients. “We are a little bit more sensitive to their needs.”

Like airlines that offer first-class and coach sections, dermatology is fast becoming a two-tier business in which higher-paying customers often receive greater pampering. In some dermatologists’ offices, freer-spending cosmetic patients are given appointments more quickly than medical patients for whom health insurance pays fixed reimbursement fees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/28beauty.html?hp

[liberal N proud]

1. Put the lepers over there

Doctors like that give the industry a bad rap.

[Union Thug]

2. ah yes, the beauty of free market medicine -

Those who need the care are left behind, while the supercilious, overpaid, vanity-whores are given first consideration.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. There are exceptions. I had a suspicious looking growth on my chin

and initially asked for the cosmetic surgeon for a consult. He looked at it, and sent me to his wife, who has the dematology portion of their practice. It cost less, she did a great job on removal, made sure the pathology was clean, and even found a melanoma on my leg while I was there.

Not all these doctors are money-oriented.

[chicagomd]

4. This sh*t drives me crazy.

And try getting a dermatologist to see a pediatric patient with state medical insurance. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.