Separate, but Equal

In an article in the New York Times entitled "As Doctors Cater to Looks, Skin Patients Wait" published on July 28, ----- reports that many dermatologists' practices cater to the cosmetic patients differently than they do to medical dermatology patients. The cosmetic patient obtains earlier appointments, nicer waiting rooms and examination settings, while the patient with a medical dermatology complaint, that is a mole or rash, waits longer for an appointment and waits in a a standard room with fewer amenities.

This is abhorrent. It smacks of two waiting rooms-one for blacks and one for whites. Balcks waited longer to see the doctor in one practice in Mississippi, meaning that they were seen after the white patients were seen. I have to be careful here. Airlines cater to their more upscale cliens in first and business class-definitely separate but unqeual. To hear of the same in medical arena feels odd and unfair.

All this at a time when dermatologists are touting the melaonama prevention line. Yet patient who must who have skin cancer concerns wait longer to be seen that the pataient with a botox request.

This is money talking...Cosmetic patients pay more for the higher costing procedures and expect to be catered to. The more medical dermatology patient pays significatnly less for a melanoma evaluation or rash cure.