new to board: infertility questions/recommendations

wtm7478 · September 2009

hi ladies -
short time lurker here, but i'll get right to my issue: husband and i have been trying to conceive for 14 months. we've gone through the testing and have moved on to the fertility clinic stage. had a first consult 2 weeks ago w/dr. dimattina at dominion fertility. while he was great i'm frustrated by his staff-there's just NO sensitivity at the cost and taking the extra 2 seconds to call insurance company and check that the diagnostic part is covered before charging me $590 for an ultrasound! we have another first appt at shady grove/annandale w/dr. greenhouse in 2 weeks. the whole cost of this is so overwhelming and it seems like the flat fee offered by shady grove is a better option.

what do any of you w/experience in this area have to say? should we stick w/dominion or is shady grove the way to go? do you recommend another doctor? we are trying not to get frustrated b/c we know it's going to be a long road. also, we know that we'll need IVF w/ICSI in order to conceive.

thanks in advance for your help/advice.

Karenbird · September 2009

We loved Dr. Greenhouse. Their staff was fantastic about insurance, etc. They assign a financial coordinator based on your insurance, so whoever you get assigned to will have established relationships with your insurer and have some familiarity with their policies. I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but the plain fact of the matter is that it is up to you to know what's covered before you even go to the doctor. I spent hours reading my policy and talking with my insurer before we even got in to see Dr. Greenhouse. Even still, my insurance initially rejected my prescription claims (SG has to fill some of them directly, as I recall). Shady Grove did a great job of working with my insurance to give them whatever they demanded in paperwork after I recognized the error, but it was definitely my responsibility to know what was covered and figure out if it was getting screwed up in the first place. It was many extra hours of stress I didn't need, but it is what it is, and unfortunately, it sucks. :-( GL with your SG appointment. I hope it goes well!

belizeitornot · September 2009

I second the pp. Shady Grove has been awesome (we see Dr. Stillman at the Rockville office), and our nurse is fan-freakin-tastic, but we are still well aware of what is covered and thinking proactively to figure out what is covered before a test is done. The financial coordinator you are assigned will help relieve some of that burden, but they can't do it all and understand the minutae of every plan for every patient.

I would recommend Shady Grove in a heartbeat though!

HikerBride07 · September 2009

I highly recommend Shady Grove. Good Luck!

NowDNAtoo · September 2009

I love Dr. Muasher at The Muasher Center www.mcfivf.com

The staff there is wonderful and I don't feel like a number there (it's a smaller practice), but Dr. Muasher has much experience dating back to The Jones Institute one of the initial leading infertility centers. I would highly recommend him.

As far as insurance, you'll want to find out directly from them what you have covered, but the insurance/office manager at The Muasher Center is soooo helpful too.

Lion&Hokie · September 2009

Agree 100% with this post. Yes

Good luck!

ETA: Huh, not sure what happened but I quoted Karenbird's post that I agree with.

FWIW, I understand what a PITA to call insurances and find out what exactly isn't covered (believe me, even with our two insurances it was hard to get stuff covered). I also saw Dr. Greenhouse but in Fair Oaks - my nurse was at Annandale.

Delta_diva · September 2009

shady grove worked for us. Dr. Brown was wonderful

JessandJeremy · September 2009

We loved Shady Grove. Even though it is a large facility, each person is assigned to a nurse, a financial coordinator, and of course your doctor. I never felt like a number and felt that all of the staff I met truly w. I have wanted us to be successful. We will go back there in a heartbeat for number two. I have a couple of friends who used other places unsuccessfully and switched to SG per my suggestion.One got pregnant her first cycle with them and the other is in her first cycle now. I got pregnant with my second cycle with SG. Good luck to you...its a long and tiring process but the people with SG make is easier.

lbabyt · September 2009

I saw Dr. Gordon at dominion fertility and had excellent sucess with them. also - Charla is one of the financial people there. She was able to answer all of my insurance questions.

wtm7478 · September 2009

ladies-

thanks so much for your help and the info and support you provided! i have already been working w/the insurance company (BCBS PPO) and that's when i found out that only diagnostic is covered. our insurance agent also told me that the state of virginia doesn't offer/mandate coverage by insurance companies for infertility treatments -i asked about buying a plan that would cover some of this (as my friend in NY did), but they said this was not offered in virginia.

i feel a little better about things and am looking forward to our appt at SG.

thanks again for your help :-)

lhartman · September 2009

Shady grove is amazing. I used Dr. Widra in the DC office and owe him everything. I would run, not walk away from Dominion Fertility. I will spare you all the details but I have nothing nice to say about them and the fact that Dr. Dimattina had idea to handle my case is baffling to me, still to this day som 4 years later.

My issue was strictly a scar tissue blockage (and minor ovulation issue which was easily fixable) that required IVF because the sperm and the egg couldn?t navigate through my cervix so all he had to do was put it there. Nope, he said there was no way, no how and handed me the number to a surrogate lawyer, this was after he stood in the waiting room talking to me while I was still half sedated and told me in front of room of others, that I?m no less of a woman because I can?t have children on my own (and that is verbatim). Their facility is old and small and I could go on. The nurses were nice but that?s it.

I never had any procedures done there, just the preliminary standard testing but I literally made an appt. right away with Shady Grove and was pregnant on the first and only IVF cycle with transferring only one, yes one embryo so you can see what I have nothing nice to say about DF and everything nice to say about SG.

The best part is, my birthday was two weeks ago and I get an e-card from Dominion Fertility saying ?Happy Birthday, Hope we see you again soon.? Ah, number one, I haven?t been to your facility since 2004 or 2005 and number two, do you really think someone who is having IF issues hopes to have to go back to you, let alone have it combined with a Happy Birthday message. Such poor taste. Anyway, SG rocks.

- LH

thiswillbe · September 2009

Coming late to the post, but we worked with Columbia Fertility (specifically, Dr. Sacks) and they were AWESOME. We were OOP (my insurance only covers IF treatment if you're straight), but they had great OOP rates and were sensitive about cost.

But beyond any of the money stuff was the excellent care we received there. I could not recommend them any more highly!

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