A series of investigations is pulling back the curtain on how Florida med spas operate in the gray area between medicine and beauty, where lines of responsibility can be blurry and hands-on oversight is often limited. Patients have reported burns, bad reactions, and other harm that specialists say tends to happen when clinics outsource medical supervision or spread doctors thin across many different locations. Regulators and lawmakers have tried to tighten the rules, but state limits and enforcement still leave plenty of gaps.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, reporters pored over thousands of license records, court filings, and interviews and found medical directors who formally oversee spas located far from their main practices, as well as many who do not hold specialty board certification. The reporting also details lawsuits and criminal charging documents that describe burns, alleged unauthorized use of prescribing authority, and other injuries linked to med spa treatments.
Study says directors are often distant or underqualified
A 2025 survey in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that fewer than one quarter of Florida med spa medical directors were board-certified in dermatology or plastic surgery. Roughly one-fifth were supervising more than one clinic outside their main practice. The authors argued that the explosive growth of nonphysician providers makes strong, local physician oversight more important than ever.
What state law requires
Florida law puts specific limits on how many offices a physician can supervise. In general, a doctor may oversee only one office in addition to their primary practice, and any extra locations have to fall within 25 miles or in a contiguous county. There are also posting and notification requirements. Those provisions are set out in the state’s medical practice statutes and are intended to keep supervising physicians reasonably available to the clinics they oversee, according to the Florida statutes.
Lawmakers tried to force transparency
During the last legislative session, several lawmakers and specialty groups pushed bills that would have forced med spas to publicly post the names and qualifications of their medical directors. One proposal, sponsored by Rep. Anne Gerwig and filed as Bill H0625, would have required spas to display the supervising physician’s name, license number, and specialty credentials. The proposal died in committee in 2025, according to BillTrack50.
Injuries, lawsuits and criminal charges
Among the cases reviewed by reporters, one customer sued a spa after suffering severe burns from laser hair removal and later reached an out-of-court settlement. In another case, charging documents accused a med spa employee of practicing without a license and misusing a physician’s prescribing authority. Those incidents sit within a broader pattern of complaints and legal actions that, taken together, highlight the risks of a lightly supervised market, as detailed by the Orlando Sentinel.
Enforcement is mostly complaint-driven
The Florida Department of Health typically opens investigations only after it receives a complaint rather than through routine audits. Critics say that the approach allows questionable practices to continue until someone gets hurt. Department spokespeople have told reporters that unlicensed-activity investigators review tips and pursue cases that meet probable-cause standards, a workload model that public health advocates argue does not replace proactive oversight. Past reporting by News 6/ClickOrlando has described the complaint-driven process in detail.
What to ask before you book
Before you sign up for any procedure, ask some basic questions. Who is the supervising physician? Are they board-certified in dermatology or plastic surgery? Is that doctor scheduled to be on-site for your treatment? What is the physician’s license number? If a spa cannot or will not answer those questions clearly, the safer move is to look for a physician’s office or a clinic that can show you exactly who is in charge medically and where they will be.
What comes next
Medical societies, including the Florida Society of Plastic Surgeons and dermatology groups, have asked regulators for stronger posting rules and urged state medical boards to consider formal rulemaking on supervision and disclosure. The Florida Medical Association has noted those petitions as the boards weigh next steps, according to the Florida Medical Association.
For now, watchdog reporting and a growing body of research have pushed the issue squarely into public view, and both lawmakers and medical organizations say changes could be on the horizon. Until that happens, patients are largely left to protect themselves by demanding clear answers about who is really supervising their care before trusting a med spa with their skin.
