Dominion Fertility vs. Shady Grove Fertility

[Anonymous]

Are prices negotiable anywhere if you pay up front or in cash?

[Anonymous]

I'm not even sure what to say at this point. I just found this thread. We had such a bad experience with Dominion that I cannot even wrap my mind around it. Worse than the lost money. Worse than not getting pregnant.

Needless to say, because they refuse to discuss what they did to/with us, and they were 100% wrong (no doubt about that) we have had to make "other arrangements" for how we will get resolution to what was done.

I agree with a lot of what was said here. We did a consult at SG and found them to be a big sales machine. But maybe leaving there was wrong..maybe they know the science and if you can get past the other crap you would be fine. Too late. We wasted two years with other inferior fertility clinics. Ever hear of Washington Fertility? Stay far far far away. That's a scary place. And with what happened at Dominion, from dealing with the billing issues (totally hilarious when they try to trick you into coming back for 8 weeks of "monitoring" and paying out of pocket when you can just go to your ob/gyn and get it paid by insurance) and with Dr. D, and I'm good. I'd rather not have a baby if these morons are my only choices.

[Anonymous]

All fertility clinics monitor your Beta, E2, prog levels and do a sono when pregnant post IVF or IUI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are prices negotiable anywhere if you pay up front or in cash?

At Dominion if you have no insurance coverage, you pay up front.

[Anonymous]

Ugh 05/04/2011 13:55 sorry you had such a bad experience. I felt like I was treated well by SG although I did not get pregnant there. The entire process sucks though. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I think that we're going to give SG another shot. What happened to me / us at Dominon should never happen to anyone ever. And if Dimattina would discuss it with us, maybe we could find forgiveness in our hearts, but he's running scared. Something is very wrong at Dominion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All fertility clinics monitor your Beta, E2, prog levels and do a sono when pregnant post IVF or IUI.

This...and if you are pg, then it is covered under your insurance...because you are now pregnant. NOT receiving fertility treatments.

[Anonymous]

I have read your post about the financial department and when I went to DF their was a woman name Charla who ran the department and she was on point, I never could understand why she was not there anymore. But when you look around maybe I can understand it, she was very knowledgeable in the insurance field.

[Anonymous]

Wow I guess Im glad to see you had a positive result with Charla. I had many issues with her in billing. She even stated to me " Honey you can't have three insurance's the max you can have is two".

[Anonymous]

My wife went to DF and she got pregnant with natural cycle on the first try. I can't complain as results are what matters. We were treated by Andrea Reh, she was very nice and professional. We didn't have to deal with Dr D. or Gordon. I heard Dr D can be arrogant, but can't speak about it. Dr. Reh was very nice and as I mentioned they delivered on the first attempt.
Now regarding invoicing and financing, well, like most doctor offices in the US, it was a nightmare. They will not let you use your insurance for a natural cycle, they willl ask you for millions of tests at their clinic so that they can over charge you and then they try to collect on already paid visits. At the end everything worked out fine, but you have to be very vigilant.
good luck

[Anonymous]

I'm having a great experience at Shady Grove. I had a VERY brief, very bad experience with CFA, including with their much-maligned billing department.

At Shady Grove, the process is very professional. I thought I'd want it to be more informal and less structured, such as with CFA where there is no standard procedure, and you call to make appointments for each monitoring appointment--at Shady Grove, all monitoring is 7-8:30 a.m., before work. You don't start calculating the time off you'll need, or worrying about how you'll explain another "appointment" when you leave work. All doctors have access to all your records--they can and do pull up your bloodwork and ultrasounds as needed. I have a nurse who is assigned to me, she is perfectly punctual about calling me, I know to expect the results after 1:00 p.m. and before 4:00 p.m.

I pay upfront each visit, there are no lingering billing issues. I feel like a human being there, so that if there are issues, I know who to ask, and that person seems to be there to help me, not to "get the better of me", which is how I felt at CFA (I had a particularly bad experience there, perhaps worse than others).

So, when I started looking for a doctor to do IUIs (I am single and really need someone to just introduce the sperm and the egg, though I'm using drugs now to speed up the process), I had written off Shady Grove due to the cost and some bad people in the call center, I thought it would be too impersonal, factory-like, they'd push me to more aggressive treatment, wouldn't let me try natural cycle, etc.

Well, finally a reasonable person called me back from SG, told me they DO offer natural cycle, and I am glad I ended up there. With the Shared Help discount (based on your income), it is the same or less than other clinics for what I am doing, and I am comfortable when I go in there, and instead of "watching my back"--we all need to advocate for ourselves--I feel like they "have my back" as far as really working to get me pregnant.

[Anonymous]

OP, I never have to schedule monitoring appointments @ CFA. I let them know when day 1 is because they want to know that informaion. But if I do not do that it really does not matter. They will see me for walk/in morning monitoring....regardless of expecting me or not. I really do like CFA very much! There are so many conflicting reviews about every RE/clinic, on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife went to DF and she got pregnant with natural cycle on the first try. I can't complain as results are what matters. We were treated by Andrea Reh, she was very nice and professional. We didn't have to deal with Dr D. or Gordon. I heard Dr D can be arrogant, but can't speak about it. Dr. Reh was very nice and as I mentioned they delivered on the first attempt.
Now regarding invoicing and financing, well, like most doctor offices in the US, it was a nightmare. They will not let you use your insurance for a natural cycle, they willl ask you for millions of tests at their clinic so that they can over charge you and then they try to collect on already paid visits. At the end everything worked out fine, but you have to be very vigilant.
good luck

Dear Whichever Dominion Employee Wrote This:

Do you really think that people are going to believe that some husband (hardly any husbands post on this board - but then I guess you haven't realized that yet since one of your other fake posts was also written by a "husband") would dig up a post from over three months ago just to randomly praise Dr. Reh? I'll give you points for the negatives you stated in order to attempt to hide that this was a fake post, but you really aren't kidding anyone.

What my husband and I can't figure out is why you don't treat your current patients better? Clearly, there's a concerted effort to manipulate review and support sites, which is shameful, but it makes it obvious that you are actively seeking out new clients. As a small business owner myself, I can tell you that it would be a heck of a lot easier just to keep your current patients happy than to run around the internet posting fake reviews. I cannot tell you how many times different Dominion employees were just BEYOND rude and negligent, really, to both me and my husband. And we were not pushy people at all, so you probably have no idea who is writing this. If you had just lived up to your promises at the beginning and treated us with a moderate level of compassion - I'm not looking for anything excessive here - we would (a) be returning to your clinic ourselves, (b) telling our friends, and (c) writing positive reviews on the internet. Don't you think that would have been much more effective to your bottom line than these fake reviews will be?

To everyone else: Dominion sucks. Seriously, run far away. The lack of follow-through on my case was UNBELIEVABLE. It was honestly a joke, which would have been funny if we weren't making sacrifices to pay for it.

[Anonymous]

PP 21:18, I really wish you had seen someone else at CFA besides Dr. Butler. Without at all discounting your bad experience there with that one person, I don't think it is indicative of everyone's experience with that practice.

I'm at CFA. I don't care if anyone else goes there or not; they make enough money without my promoting them. I'm also sure that Shady Grove has great medical professionals who do good work. (I've had some interactions with a person who works there, and she's been delightful.)

But for whatever it's worth, patients do not have to make appointments for monitoring visits at CFA. You show up between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. I personally have not had any lingering billing issues. And if I have questions, I email my doctor or my nurses and get the answers I'm looking for.

This just goes to show you that its worth maybe visitng more than one practice to find out which one is a better fit. Postings on a message board only go so far.

[Anonymous]

To 21:38, they looooove pushing that Natural Cycle. Love it.