Medical franchises / Sona MedSpa

[Guest]

Franchised delivery of medical services by companies such as Sona MedSpa and Vital Dent has been a hot segment recently. Regulators are getting involved due to the franchise-related problems, but the serious health risks of unskilled franchisees playing with medical devices is a bit more scary to me.

Janet Sparks of Franchise Times was the first to break the news on the Sona MedSpa debacle (Sona is one of Jim Amos' companies) and now the Wall Street Journal has come out with a piece: http://startup.wsj.com/ideas/services/20061122-rundle.html

From what I hear, there may be other media outlets looking into the story.

Stay tuned, and if you want to play doctor, go to Toys R Us and buy "Operation"-- don't buy a medical franchise and play with people's lives.

[Guest]

Sounds more like the medspas were pricing their services too low.  What business wouldn't want to recieve $1,000 now for services to be delivered throughout the year?  That's great so long as you priced appropriately.

[Guest]

Franchise Times article in Nov/Dec 2006 issue, discusses Vital Dent and United Imaging Partners and Dermacare Laser & Skin Care Clinic.

Reporter is Stacey Freeborg [mail]sfreeborg@franchisetimes.com[/mail], Quality control: Should medical services be franchised?

[Guest]

If you take a long look at Jim Amos' history you will see fraud, failures and lawsuits.
You will also see that his "team" follows him.
Look down the lines of Brice Foods (the yogurt franchise) out of Texas. There is an appeal out of the San Antonio courts that shows how guilty he was in that disaster.
He then moved on to Mail Boxes Etc, where he destroyed that franchise, and is still in courts and arbitrations.
Then he goes to Sona Medspas and I count at least 7 lawsuits that have been filed against Sona, Jim Amos and his daughter, Heather Rose in that disaster.

Where will his next destruction occur?

[Guest]

Try going to the next board meeting of the Rosenberg Center and ask Jim & his buddy Matt Shay.

Seriously though, it is public internet discussions such as your post which will help to make it more difficult for bad actors to survive in the franchise industry. Kind of ironic-- thats giving the IFA a taste of it's own regulatory philosophy.

Best wishes for the New Year!