SGF Shared Risk

[Anonymous]

We’re starting IVF and leaning toward SGF shared risk. We are early 30s and our issue is PCOS. Anyone BTDT? Are there hidden costs? Would you do it again?

[Anonymous]

Yes they charged for a lot of extras not in the contract. Something like $2k additional per cycle for hidden fees/required procedures not specified in the contract. This is not including meds. I wouldn't have minded if it worked, but it didn't for me. Hope you have better luck.

[Anonymous]

We did it but 5 yrs ago. Didn't see any hidden costs. It doesn't include meds. Ours didn't include PGS (which we didn't need due to age). You can't bank embryos. There are a lot of parameters but I felt it was clear.

[Anonymous]

I did it and there weren’t any hidden costs. I had to pay for meds separately, which was VERY expensive for me.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t run into hidden costs but after my second not great cycle they highly pressured me to move to donor egg. I did and it was probably the right call but I really thought they would do more than two cycles.

[Anonymous]

I'm the poster complaining about hidden costs. To the people who say no hidden costs, what about the mock embryo transfer for $1k or so? Did you not have to do that, not get charged, or were you expecting that so it wasn't hidden? I was also told I had to do additional other things like a hysteroscopy between cycles because there was apparently some piece of tissue in my uterus and other similar things.

[Anonymous]

We are in the midst of this and after some consideration, went with Shared Risk. The "hidden cost" we have so far encountered has been the medication, which was $4,000 out of pocket for the prescriptions prior to egg retrieval. The medication for now ramping up for implantation is around $300.

I truly did not expect the the medication costs to be $4,000 for one cycle. In fairness to them, they did note that the prescriptions would be subject to what our insurance would cover, but there was no mention that the out-of-pocket cost would be so high, and of course, given that our insurance has covered absolutely nothing so far in the process, I felt that they could have been more upfront about that information. I'm not sure if that would have changed our decision on what to do, but it certainly wasn't fun to find out 48 hours prior to being required to order the prescriptions.

We have felt that the doctors we have dealt with have all been professional and knowledgeable, but the SGF support staff has been fairly poor - not following up on things they said they would, giving us incorrect information that was later corrected, sending messages to complete hyperlinked documents with dead links, etc.

We have only gone through one cycle, so I can't yet speak to our ultimate views on SGF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the poster complaining about hidden costs. To the people who say no hidden costs, what about the mock embryo transfer for $1k or so? Did you not have to do that, not get charged, or were you expecting that so it wasn't hidden? I was also told I had to do additional other things like a hysteroscopy between cycles because there was apparently some piece of tissue in my uterus and other similar things.

At least some insurance providers will cover testing even if they don't cover IVF itself. That was at least the case for me, and may be the case for other posters as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the midst of this and after some consideration, went with Shared Risk. The "hidden cost" we have so far encountered has been the medication, which was $4,000 out of pocket for the prescriptions prior to egg retrieval. The medication for now ramping up for implantation is around $300.

I truly did not expect the the medication costs to be $4,000 for one cycle. In fairness to them, they did note that the prescriptions would be subject to what our insurance would cover, but there was no mention that the out-of-pocket cost would be so high, and of course, given that our insurance has covered absolutely nothing so far in the process, I felt that they could have been more upfront about that information. I'm not sure if that would have changed our decision on what to do, but it certainly wasn't fun to find out 48 hours prior to being required to order the prescriptions.

We have felt that the doctors we have dealt with have all been professional and knowledgeable, but the SGF support staff has been fairly poor - not following up on things they said they would, giving us incorrect information that was later corrected, sending messages to complete hyperlinked documents with dead links, etc.

We have only gone through one cycle, so I can't yet speak to our ultimate views on SGF.

OP here - good luck with your transfer! The medication cost information is so helpful, thank you for sharing it.

[Anonymous]

Did it, worth every penny as I have two beautiful children smiling back at me right now because of it. Made me forget about whatever gagillion dollars we paid shady grove (well, almost!) worse than the cost of two kids shared tusk at SG was actually the cost of two kids having extended NICU stays when they were born! That came to over 100K, I had crappy insurance at the time that didn’t cover it all (long story).

[Anonymous]

As someone with PCOS it's absolutely worth it. Most people will not be successful round 1. I have rpl and have no success on the horizon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the midst of this and after some consideration, went with Shared Risk. The "hidden cost" we have so far encountered has been the medication, which was $4,000 out of pocket for the prescriptions prior to egg retrieval. The medication for now ramping up for implantation is around $300.

I truly did not expect the the medication costs to be $4,000 for one cycle. In fairness to them, they did note that the prescriptions would be subject to what our insurance would cover, but there was no mention that the out-of-pocket cost would be so high, and of course, given that our insurance has covered absolutely nothing so far in the process, I felt that they could have been more upfront about that information. I'm not sure if that would have changed our decision on what to do, but it certainly wasn't fun to find out 48 hours prior to being required to order the prescriptions.

We have felt that the doctors we have dealt with have all been professional and knowledgeable, but the SGF support staff has been fairly poor - not following up on things they said they would, giving us incorrect information that was later corrected, sending messages to complete hyperlinked documents with dead links, etc.

We have only gone through one cycle, so I can't yet speak to our ultimate views on SGF.

I feel for you. If it makes you feel any better we did try to do our research-- went to CVS and asked them to tell us how much it would be to fill the Rx and they quoted something reasonable and then when the time came to pick up the Rx they quoted us something like 3-4x the price-- at least $1500 more than we expected with no real explanation of why. But of course at that point there's no turning back.

Anyway, heartfelt wishes and good vibes for you!

[Anonymous]

For everyone at SGF, I would run away. The horrible service is taken as granted there. I switched to CCRM in Denver and even with the cost of 2 trips there it was cheaper. CCRM actually was able to push much of the testing through my insurance (and they did more extensive testing) even though I had no fertility coverage. They also truly shop around all options for your meds. They got mine from a combo of one local compounding pharmacy I had never heard of and 2 mail order ones and they were $3500 less for higher quantities of the same things SG used. Also I obviously didn’t have success at SG but did on my first try at CCRM with aMA and PCOS and a few other things. I don’t mean to hijack your question but just make sure you’re looking at all options and not just getting sucked into that factory

[Anonymous]

1. I hate SGF. They treat their patients like garbage and they think that is okay. I was raised in the fertility world - father is a fertility specialist just not in this area.

2. I also had PCOS - IVF is designed for people with IVF. My fertility scores - got from my OBGYN (SO MUCH CHEAPER) were great. SGF said super high odds I would get pregnant in my first round at worst second and I got pregnant in my first round - kid is 6.

3. SGF designs everything to scare you. A blood draw costs them $3-8 to make money and they charge you $25. I asked questions and was told if I was going to be difficult I should find someone else (this was the day before my retrieval AND I was full of drugs- really).

I would NOT do anything that entrenchs you with SGF and look at Dominion or other providers. SGF is good because they are everywhere but their numbers are good because they don't take everyone (they rejected my friend (she was big and black) - she had two kids with Dominion; first kid on first try.

If you have PCOS, IVF is designed for you. Don't get sucked into the fear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. I hate SGF. They treat their patients like garbage and they think that is okay. I was raised in the fertility world - father is a fertility specialist just not in this area.

2. I also had PCOS - IVF is designed for people with IVF. My fertility scores - got from my OBGYN (SO MUCH CHEAPER) were great. SGF said super high odds I would get pregnant in my first round at worst second and I got pregnant in my first round - kid is 6.

3. SGF designs everything to scare you. A blood draw costs them $3-8 to make money and they charge you $25. I asked questions and was told if I was going to be difficult I should find someone else (this was the day before my retrieval AND I was full of drugs- really).

I would NOT do anything that entrenchs you with SGF and look at Dominion or other providers. SGF is good because they are everywhere but their numbers are good because they don't take everyone (they rejected my friend (she was big and black) - she had two kids with Dominion; first kid on first try.

If you have PCOS, IVF is designed for you. Don't get sucked into the fear.

It is unless your PCOS is caused by a gene called PAI-1 then it also causes recurrent pregnancy loss due to blood clotting. So you get pregnant and lose every pregnancy. SGF said I was a great candidate for IVF but didn't do any investigation into my rpl. So what happened for me? Pregnant first try, baby died like always.