AT LASER 2017
SAN DIEGO (FRONTLINE MEDICAL NEWS) – Laser hair removal isn’t typically in an office cleaner’s job description. So it’s no wonder that Virginia legislators were spooked when they heard from a constituent who was treated by a spa worker who turned out to be a janitor.
Earlier this year, legislators in the Old Dominion passed a bill limiting laser hair removal procedures to a “properly trained” medical doctor, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner – or a “properly trained” person who is supervised by one of these professionals. Therefore, it’s still possible for a “properly trained” person without a degree of any kind to operate a laser in Virginia.
To the north in New Jersey, the rules are much stricter: Only physicians can perform laser procedures. But in New York, it appears that anyone can fire up a laser and go to work on unwanted hair. And in Florida, nonphysicians can perform laser procedures only if they’re physician assistants or nurse practitioners. But they’re only allowed to remove hair with lasers at a clinic that just performs laser hair removal.
Such is the chaotic state of laser law in the United States, a new study finds. The rules, which vary widely from state to state, are often vague and confusing. And, as Virginia’s new law shows, they’re still evolving. (The study is current as of March 2016.)
“My head was spinning when I was doing this,” said study lead author Catherine M. DiGiorgio, MD , a fellow in laser and cosmetic dermatology with the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. “I don’t think the people who make the laws are aware of how they affect the consumers who are having these procedures done for both cosmetic and medical reasons.”
She and study coauthor Mathew M. Avram, MD, JD , director of the Laser and Cosmetic Center at Massachusetts General, analyzed regulations in the 50 states regarding the operation of lasers. They reported their findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery.
Dr. DiGiorgio said that laser operator laws address three issues:
1. Who can operate a laser?
At other clinics across the country, nonphysician employees — such as nurse practitioners and registered nurses – often operate lasers. Whether they can legally actually do so isn’t always obvious.
New Jersey is the only state that requires laser operators to be physicians. At the other extreme, 11 states, including Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania, have “no” limits on who can perform laser procedures. (At Massachusetts General Hospital, physicians perform all laser procedures.)
So does that mean anyone can perform a laser procedure? It’s not clear. “The laws are a lot more vague than they should be,” Dr. DiGiorgio said in an interview.
Eighteen states allow people to perform laser procedures as part of the “practice of medicine,” although legislation can be vague on what that means. Those states include Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Texas.
Another 19 states, including California, Ohio, Washington, Wisconsin, and now Virginia, have specific limits on who can perform laser procedures. In California, for example, physician assistants and registered nurses – but not licensed vocational nurses – are allowed to use lasers to remove hair, spider veins, and tattoos. Unlicensed medical assistants, cosmetologists, electrologists, and estheticians are not allowed to perform the procedures
2. Can someone delegate laser procedures to someone else?
In nine states, including Iowa and New Hampshire, there’s no oversight of delegation or nonphysicians can delegate procedures to someone else.
In another nine states, certain procedures can be delegated with no physician oversight, such as laser hair removal in Alaska and ablative procedures (to advanced practice registered nurses only) in Utah.
3. Is supervision required of nonphysicians?
Physicians don’t need to supervise certain laser procedures in 11 states, including Hawaii, Oregon, and Vermont, where they can be performed by a nonphysician with no supervision or under supervision by a non-physician.
In 17 states, supervision isn’t always required or it’s under the discretion of the supervising physician. These states include California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In 11 states, including Illinois and Massachusetts, only certain procedures require on-site supervision. Six states, including Connecticut and Maryland, require on-site physician supervision for all laser procedures, but Dr. DiGiorgio said the requirements can be vague about what “on site” actually means.
Idaho requires the physician to be on site or immediately available, and South Carolina allows registered nurses to perform laser hair and leg vein removal if a physician is on site and can respond within 5 minutes.
“We don’t know what the ideal regulation is,” Dr. DiGiorgio said. But she believes laser regulations are crucial to safety, especially as fields such as plastic surgery, ophthalmology, and gynecology embrace cosmetic laser procedures.
Information about state-by-state laser operator laws is available on the American Med Spa Association website.
Dr. DiGiorgio reported no relevant disclosures.
