Friday, March 22, 2013

Spoke To Soon - Big Decision Time

It's amazing how quickly this pre-fertility treatment roller coaster hits it's peaks and valleys.  Today I got the phone call to go over the cost of treatment with my old RE, Dr. B.  I was rendered speechless when the financial counselor told me my IUI treatment (with the cost of monitoring, bloodwork and two IUI's) would equal $3500.  Granted, since my last cycle with Dr. B., he has stuck out with another partner and I knew that his costs would change a little bit but not by $2000.  I stayed calm and asked her if she was sure this price was accurate, because if so, I would regrettably have to go to another doctor.  She told me she wanted to make a phone call to check on the price and that she would call me back as soon as she got an answer. 

As I hung up, my phone began ringing.  It was the drug rep telling me that my medication will be waiting for me at my doctors office by the end of the day. CRAP!!  I know I cannot afford to go through a cycle at Dr. B's office.  Now what do I do?  After the medicine ships they wont let you switch RE's.

My mind started racing.  I called another clinic that had just opened up a month ago and they told me they charged between $450 (unmonitored cycle) to $1800.  The earliest they could give me an appointment for was mid May.  I have to use my meds by no later than mid june so I would be cutting it really close. 

With  mixed emotions, I decided to call back Dr. G's office to see exactly what a cost of an IUI cycle would be at his office. With all the same services as Dr. B's quote sans one IUI, the total was around $800.  Since this is something that I could afford, and quickly, I decided to start asking more questions about the protocol they gave me and why they wouldn't move my dose up since we already know that dosage of gonal-f doesn't do anything for me. I thought maybe I should give them a chance, but that's when I found out they either A) lost the chart we sent over from Dr. B's office  (And I swear that is why Dr. G was telling me that I was being overcharged and using a dangerous protocol when I was at Dr. B's office) or B) They never got my chart in the first place.  She said they did not have any proof that the lower dose wouldn't work, so this is the direction they wanted to go with me.  She then proceeds to tell me that I shouldn't feel in such a rush to do a cycle because my bloodwork was completely NORMAL!!!  It just floors me because she told me last time we talked that I should move as quickly as possibly because I have incredibly low AMH and super high estrogen, which sent me into panic mode.  While my AMH isn't great (.57) my FSH is 6.4 and my E2 was 33, acceptable levels.  It took all my strength to not show how pissed I was.  I then brought up the FDA labwork again.  I told her I consulted with another RE in the area and how he said that all our hospitals in the area are FDA certified and that going to them would suffice (which I did have the labwork done on Thursday afternoon) instead of paying $255 in cash to ship and test the blood/urince up at the FDA lab located in the state capital.  She nonchalantly says its okay to get the testing done anywhere I wanted.  It was the final straw for me, I just told her I needed to take some time to decide how I am going to proceed.

Shortly after I hung up with Dr. G's office, Dr. B's office called me back and told me there was some misunderstanding and that the total cost of the IUI cycle would be $1950. It is still a higher cost over the two other quotes I got but it is significantly better than $3500.

So I now need to decide:
A) Continue with Dr. B, who I trust and love his staff, and suck it up and pay the extra cost.
B) Wait until my appointment at the new clinic so that I can save myself $200, risking that they might not be able to do my first cycle until after my mid-June cut off date and losing my free medications. Thankfully I know a lot of the nurses at the clinic, because many of them use to work for Dr. B, and I know for a fact they are great.
C) Return to Dr. G's office, where I can almost guarantee I will continue to get the run-around and a slew of mis-information but save myself over $1000.

Decisions, Decisions.

5 comments:

Jen said...

I am thinking that the right choice is to stay with Dr. B. The other two options have too many unknowns for something so important.

Tiara said...

I'd stick with Dr B...the devil you know & all...saving $200 to enter into the unknown with a new clinic could bring on a whole new world of problems & no one should have to put up with the incompitacies at Dr G. Good luck

bunintheovenplease! said...

Have you checked to see that each price includes the exact same tests? I just had to do through a similar scenario to you - I got the price down from $1650 to $540 when i told them the tests i wanted and didn't! + they added in a few extras i don't need.

R said...

I'd say definitely not choice C. Either A or B; I'd go with A.

Shannon said...

Have you made a choice yet? Choice C sounds awful, but either A or B could be good - though Dr. B does sound pretty great.