Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Blog

Blow up over Botox

Judging by the voluminous options available to those seeking to inject Bovine botulinum into their wrinkles, Nevada could be the Botox capital of the country. Add to that laws and a regulatory scheme that are sorely lacking and you've got the makings of a nerve-paralyzing Nirvana, where medical assistants (a designation neither recognized nor regulated under Nevada law and only defined by the Nevada Administrative Code) openly break the law in any number of private settings, medical spas and doctors' offices - including the office of Dr. Benjamin Rodriguez, who was reappointed today by Governor Gibbons to another term on the State Board of Medical Examiners.

Rodriguez has long advocated that the state crack down on unlicensed practitioners in medical spas. But does Rodriguez think his own unlicensed medical assistant, Monica Delacruz, should be allowed to administer Botox? Rodriguez declined our request for an interview, but Delacruz told me over the phone that she's been administering Botox in the doctor’s office for years and that although she's not licensed, she's not breaking any laws. The next day I got a statement from Rodriguez' office stating his staff was misinformed and that the doctor does all of his own cosmetic injections.

On tonight's show Louis Ling, the executive director of the medical board, admits the law is vague and that he's been told to craft regulations to govern medical assistants. In the meantime, the Attorney General's office saw fit to throw medical assistant Betty Guerra in jail. Should Guerra, who earned $23 an hour at Focus Medical Spa, have had a better understanding of the law than Rodriguez, who helps enforce it?

This is but the tip of the iceberg in a town where dwindling insurance reimbursements have doctors trading in their medical specialties in favor of a seemingly endless stream of cash-paying patients in search of the Fountain of Youth.

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