I went to CFA and liked it, didn’t need I’ve. Front desk and billing were mediocre. However, when I did get pregnant and had regular care elsewhere, billing was AWFUL. It does not get better, unfortunately!

Another person with immune issues who went to Dr. Abassi after Shady Grove and got pregnant on one IUI. I didn't have any billing issues. Maybe because it was just the one IUI. But I did keep going there for bloodwork through week 33 of my pregnancy so I had some interaction with the front desk and billing and it was fine. The nurses were fine too. I did feel that I had to be really on top of things myself and remind them about tests, even remind Dr. Abassi once or twice about what we'd discussed, but it's like that at other places too. You have to be your own advocate in most medical situations these days. (Except the dentist maybe. My dentist won't leave me alone!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t see Dr Abassi but did not have a good experience at Columbia. I felt like it was just an IVF factory. I switched clinics and ended up pregnant sans IVF.

I had the opposite experience with Dr Abbasi. I was 40 and she tried IUI first based on the suspected issue. Worked. We would have done IVF if needed but I'm happy I wasn't pushed into it.

Same. Dr. Abbasi recommended time intercourse with chlomid first for us, then IUI, and it wasn't until those weren't successful that we moved to IVF... we weren't pushed to it, though.

Highly recommend.

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t see Dr Abassi but did not have a good experience at Columbia. I felt like it was just an IVF factory. I switched clinics and ended up pregnant sans IVF.

I had the opposite experience with Dr Abbasi. I was 40 and she tried IUI first based on the suspected issue. Worked. We would have done IVF if needed but I'm happy I wasn't pushed into it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here... Sigh, I was hoping for better news about the financial office. I've practically had a nervous breakdown from SGF's financial dept and was hoping for somewhere better...

I started at SGF and moved to CFA out of frustration (more that they won’t personalize care rather than financial) but CFA is infinitely more frustrating.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Is CFA infinitely more frustrating on the care end, financial end, or both?

NP at CFA. I’m about to leave because they wouldn’t return multiple calls to schedule my day 3 bloodwork. If I didn’t call the morning of day 5 I would have missed this cycle. Then they scolded me for coming on day 5, and didn’t call me with results and next steps from the day 5 monitoring.

I found that you just have to show up between 7:30 & 9:30 if you need to be seen. Don't worry about an appointment. My day 3 was a Monday so I called first thing and kind of just said I was coming in. I got scolded once for going to the wrong floor for monitoring (they told me to go there??) so they're all a mess when it comes to monitoring. It's kind of shocking how much better the care becomes once you're in a room with the doctor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here... Sigh, I was hoping for better news about the financial office. I've practically had a nervous breakdown from SGF's financial dept and was hoping for somewhere better...

I started at SGF and moved to CFA out of frustration (more that they won’t personalize care rather than financial) but CFA is infinitely more frustrating.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Is CFA infinitely more frustrating on the care end, financial end, or both?

I thought the care from Dr. Abbasi was phenomenal. If I was planning another pregnancy, I wouldn't hesitate to go back to her. I went to her because I heard she accepted any and all situations and personalized the care to the patient. She doesn't treat patients like their in a factory.

The nurses - friendly, good, but I had a lot of trouble getting information. And I wasn't confident I was getting all of the instructions. Frustrating. I was in DC - I heard the Bethesda office was a little better in regards to the nursing staff.

Billing is horrendous. They just don't care. I'm lucky that I only had one IUI cycle and my insurance coverage was great, but the times I did have to deal with billing was horrible. It's really a shame because the doctors are wonderful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here... Sigh, I was hoping for better news about the financial office. I've practically had a nervous breakdown from SGF's financial dept and was hoping for somewhere better...

I started at SGF and moved to CFA out of frustration (more that they won’t personalize care rather than financial) but CFA is infinitely more frustrating.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Is CFA infinitely more frustrating on the care end, financial end, or both?

NP at CFA. I’m about to leave because they wouldn’t return multiple calls to schedule my day 3 bloodwork. If I didn’t call the morning of day 5 I would have missed this cycle. Then they scolded me for coming on day 5, and didn’t call me with results and next steps from the day 5 monitoring.