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    Botched at a Bargain: $4,000 Lipo, Tummy Tuck Combo Too Cheap, Probably Risky

    U.S. board-certified surgeon offers cautionary perspective on how cheap is too cheap in cosmetic surgery.
    By Staff ReportsJanuary 23, 2024

    Richard J Brown, MD, says $4,000 would hardly cover the costs of his anesthesiologist and operating room fee in performing liposuction and an abdominoplasty surgery—much less his own fee.

    “You get what you pay for,” Brown said. “It does not cost that little money to do those procedures.”

    The board-certified plastic surgeon operates in Scottsdale, Ariz. but was conducting a Q&A session on January 18, during which he fielded questions about a liposuction and tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) combo advertised at around $4,000 in Miami, Florida.

    Anyone in the field who is good at what they do would “never charge that low of a price” for the combination of procedures, he said.

    “That price alone, where I go, would probably only cover almost the anesthesia and the facility fee, without even charging what my fee is,” he said.

    The national average physician fee for liposuction surgery was $3,684 in 2019. For abdominoplasty surgery, the cost was $6,125.

    Data, American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2019.

    Those fees date from 2019, the latest year for which data on procedure costs was published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS)—and they don’t include anesthesia, OR fees, or other related expenses, ASPS says.

    Botched at a Bargain

    Cheap in the short term might also be more costly in the long term, as repairing botched liposuction can cost more than the procedures did the first time around, he warned.

    “So be very, very aware, and be very, very cautious when you get quoted these very cheap prices.

    “What you guys don’t realize is, you go to these places that are chop shops and then you end up paying twice the amount of money to get fixed when you get botched,” the board-certified plastic surgeon cautioned.

    Dr. Richard J. Brown Florida Money
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    Objective. Independent. Informative. Public interest reporting on the practice of plastic surgery not affiliated with or funded by any surgeon, device manufacturer, or practice.

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