SPA SERVICES Beauty is in the eye of your family doctor

Family physicians have added new services to generate extra revenue.
RALEIGH NEWS & amp; OBSERVER
See your family doctor and have hair removed from your legs by laser. Visit your gynecologist's office and leave with permanent eyeliner.
Finding spa services in a medical office might seem odd, but some doctors are offering them as they look for new sources of revenue to supplement the cut-rate fees they collect from health insurers.
"My patients appreciate the extra services," said Dr. Patsy Daniels, a family physician who began offering laser hair removal, skin-smoothing microdermabrasion and treatments for spider veins about three years ago at her practice in Raleigh, N.C. "Many of my patients wouldn't necessarily go to a spa. They feel comfortable with me." The appeal of the spa business is obvious: Consumers, even in a recession, will spend money to look and feel good.
Hannelore Leavy, executive director of the New Jersey-based Day Spa Association, said "medical spas" -- facilities owned by or affiliated with physicians -- are the fastest-growing part of the spa industry. Nationally, there are about 450 medical spas.
It's also obvious why doctors are interested in ways to boost their pay. Between 1995 and 1999 most wages and salaries were rising. But average physician income dropped 5 percent, according the Center for Health System Change, based in Minnesota. Still, the average physician salary was $187,000 in 1999, the most recent year the center reported.
Medical spas have been popular in states such as California and New York but have been slower to catch on elsewhere, where patients are often unclear on the concept.
The most successful full-service medical spas tend to be those that offer such things as wrinkle-busting Botox injections and plastic surgery consultations alongside more traditional pampering services such as manicures and massage.
Erika Mangrum, owner of Iatria, a medical spa with two North Carolina locations, said business is so good she is considering opening a third office. The spas have hosted Botox "parties," where groups of women come in for shots of a toxin that can help prevent wrinkles, and offer traditional spa services as well as yoga classes and chiropractic adjustments.
Mangrum doesn't have a medical background, but Iatria -- a Greek word that means the art of well-being -- is affiliated with a local plastic surgeon who practices in the same building as one of the spas.
Mangrum is also exploring the idea of a spa franchise, which would train physicians to operate successful day spas. "There's clearly interest," she said. "But a lot of [physicians] find that they don't know the spa industry well enough, and they have a hard time."