Dominion Fertility

The staff is very friendly here. And competent (which sounds like a given, but at many doctor's offices sometimes I wonder). I never have to worry that I will not receive a call back when I have to leave the nurse or finance dept a message. One thing I think that is unique to Dominion is that the offer an in-home injection teaching. My coordinator sat with me and my husband for +1 hour at our kitchen table teaching us how to mix the meds, practice using the needle with a tester to get a feel for things. As someone nervous with needles, this was HUGE. Dominion clearly cares about their patients and staff - we had a big snowstorm in DC one weekend, and they put up their staff at the hotel across the street so there'd be no chance they'd miss work! Another strength of Dominion is that they have a very knowledgeable finance department. Critical when undertaking a large financial commitment like IVF. They helped battle my insurance on multiple occasions - even getting on a three-way call with me and them a few times to resolve matters. My only criticism (which honestly is slight) is that sometimes the morning monitoring hours can feel like a revolving door. With so many people coming in and out, the time with the doctors can be very fast. You need to speak up and ask question (how am I progressing, how many follicles do you see) otherwise you may not have a ton of information volunteered for you. Also, my retrieval fell on a Sunday AM, so my doctor was not there to do the procedure as I had hoped. I imagine that would have been different if it was on a week day.

I believe Dominion offers a lot of advantages for patients with DOR or who otherwise want to try a more mini IVF approach. They also offer bilingual services for Spanish speakers, as well as military discounts for active duty members. Solely based on my experience, I would not recommend Dominion Fertility for patients who are not strictly doing IUIs. I got a second opinion from another area-clinic and while I did not pursue care there, I wish I had found them first as the RE I spoke with gave me more confidence in their knowledge of up-to-date research and laboratory quality. I was generally able to schedule easily, but I did feel like it was difficult to get answers directly from the doctors outside of appointments, and my primary nurse changed several times. Dominion also billed my insurance incorrectly for a few consults that were charged as office visits, but they didn’t submit it until I had already left their care for nearly a year, and when I tried to sort it out they basically said if I didn’t pay (the incorrectly coded charge) they would charge me more for other visits they supposedly “waived”. I have generally great insurance so can’t imagine how much more difficult their process is for patients who do NOT have it.

Strengths: the doctors (we saw Dr DiMattina primarily but also Dr Sarajari), the support from the staff, having a personal coordinator, being treated like a person and not a number, not feeling rushed during appointments, being attended in a timely manner during visits, excellent after-hours communication with the on-call nurse, and excellent communication through the portal. Weaknesses: getting a hold of the front desk on the phone (it was easy through the portal).

A major weakness is their financial department. I worked with Leslie Jackson and continue to feel disappointed and frustrated. After I was diagnosed with fertility issues, I met with Leslie Jackson requesting an overview of what my insurance would or would not cover before I could decide to start treatment. She told me she would request auths and send to me, by email, the financial costs. With the understanding and knowledge that she probably is very busy, I did not follow up until a few weeks later when I didn't hear anything. I called my insurance prior to see if an auth was requested. It was not. When I contacted my coordinator about this, she said she would help me follow up with Leslie. I never heard from Leslie. I called my insurance later to follow up and found she had requested an auth the day after I contacted my coordinator but never heard from her that she did so. I called my insurance again in a few days and found that the auth was approved. After that, I had yet to hear from Leslie to inform me. I had to initiate contact and find out the information I requested weeks ago. Not to mention I left multiple VMs with no return calls. When I finally talked with her on the phone, no apology whatsoever, straight up business talk. She has a habit of speaking fast and as if everyone in the world should know how insurance works. There is no consideration for the financial impact that infertility issues have on an individual or couple. I would imagine that one of the biggest factors that prevent someone from considering treatment is financial capacity. The fact that Dominion Fertility has a poor financial navigation department decreases its value. Furthermore, Dr. Sarajari is not a credentialed reproductive endocrinologist specialist with Blue Cross Blue Shield. She is only credentialed as a gynecologist. As a result, she, in the eyes of insurance, does not get to charge a specialist copay, only the copay rate of a PCP/GYN. However, I had to pay the specialist copay to the clinic. While I believe Dr. Sarajari is providing specialist services, it is not my fault she did not credential herself as such with my insurance company. They are only counting a part of the copay I paid to the clinic, it created a discrepancy between what I paid and what insurance counted. This resulted in me meeting my deductible and out of pocket maximum at a later date in the eyes of insurance when in reality, I already met it because of the specialist copay rate. Before even contacting Leslie, I called my insurance multiple times to first get a better understanding of what was going on and to see if insurance made a mistake. As a previous billing provider myself, I know that insurance has screwed up before. Insurance told me the services with Dr. Sarajari were billed as PCP/GYN, not specialist so Dominion would have to resubmit for it to process and specialist. I contacted Leslie on the patient portal about requesting a refund or for her to figure things out with insurance. Of course, she responds immediately, unlike my past interactions with her where it takes longer for a response. She argued that the services were not PCP/GYN, which I don’t disagree with. However, if there is a billing error, it needs to be fixed to reflect the actual services. She said she will send bills for reprocessing. A long period of time passes, I hear nothing, I call my insurance to see if the bills were submitted for reprocessing. It has not. I wait some more, call back, still nothing submitted for reprocessing. I finally go back to Leslie who claimed that her colleagued submitted the bills for reprocessing. Then proceeds to try to tell me that if I pursued a reprocessing that I would have to pay more out of pocket because of scheduling fees. It still did not make sense to me. I asked for clarification only for her to talk fast and not really help me understand her logic. So of course I have to call insurance AGAIN and I tried to ask about the scheduling fees she spoke of. They had no idea what she was talking about. From my understanding with insurance and my own research, I wouldn’t have to pay more and the insurance company actually would pay less. My insurance told me that Dr. Sarajari simply isn’t credentialed as a specialist so if she wants to collect the specialist copay, she needs to get credentialed with insurance as one. I go back to Leslie again expressing my frustration as I have spent A LOT of time and energy on this matter with little support from her. My insurance agreed to call her to work things out but she has not returned calls. Her simple response to my distress was that she didn’t receive calls and that she works until 3:30pm. The fact that I have my embryos at the facility and I have to go back for a transfer makes me mad. I want to switch to another provider but feel stuck. I want to resolve these issues before I have to go back for the transfer but clearly it’s going to cost me more time and energy. Simply based on my experience with the financial department, I wouldn’t recommend Dominion.

The staff and Dr. Kay Waud are top notch! The facility (Arlington) was clean, welcoming, and modern. They are also very punctual for all appointment. My biggest pain points (though small) were with the billing department (having wrong information about my insurance coverage, etc).

This was by far the worst experience at a clinic in my entire life. The nurses pulled the wrong lab results (results for 2 years prior for different test) from the wrong lab and accused me of not getting the right lab work done. I am not sure how I would have been able to get testing for something else and then send it to them without a written order. The nurses seemed uninterested in explaining anything, my treatment, my medications and how to use them and why and my diagnosis. The nurses also didn't inform me that I'd have to have a 2 hour glucose test, so when I went to the lab, I wasn't prepared and didn't have enough time. I had to come back another day, wasting an additional day and taking time from work. They mostly seemed annoyed that I was contacting them or asking questions at appointments. The communication is terrible. Dr. Waud did not have any of the test results when she made the diagnosis of PCOS and put me on metformin. The whole point of seeing them was to having the proper testing done. She was upset when I kept on asking why she thought I had PCOS. She only wanted to sell us on the IVF Guarantee program, which wouldn't make sense for us with the outcome of our testing. Just seems like this clinic wants money. The financial department is very poorly run. We couldn't reach anyone to get financial information for weeks. When we did get the information, it was a bunch of jargon that makes no sense to first time IVF patients and we couldn't get anyone to call us back to explain anything. We were being forced to choose a "plan" without understanding what our options were. We are highly educated people and have no problem being able to sift through this type of language, but the Dominion Financial aspects seem intentionally vague so that you spend more money than you need. I discussed all of these issues with the Administrative department and hope they make these changes for future patients.

It's a small enough clinic that you get personalized attention and people remember your name, but they're very bad at information sharing. They don't give you lab results or even basic information about procedure outcomes unless you chase them down. The business side of the clinic is disorganized; they didn't keep an accounting of the deposit they made me pay, so they tried to bill me for things even though they already had a huge deposit, and I had to fight with them and provide proof that I had put down a deposit. They forgot to bill my insurance several times. They also failed to send medical records when needed by other doctors.

Strengths: the clinic is conveniently located, clean, and very nice. I love the monitoring hours, and the nurse hotline too. Weakness: I'm reaching here because the clinic was the best I'd been to in the area. I guess, I wish the clinic were closer to me in southern Maryland.

I can only talk about the Arlington location since all my visits where there. The office is nice, a large waiting room. I got to know the front desk staff so well on my last day I did say I was going to miss them. They always greeted me with a smile and would greet me by my first name the moment I started my treatment. The clinical staff I got to grow attached when they drew my blood, Nichol was the best at drawing my blood because my veins are difficult find. The day of the egg collection I was beyond nervous, and they kept rooting for me. On the day of my FET they even handed me a pineapple snack with a sweet message that said stick baby stick. My counselor in the billing department explained our cost we had to pay out of pocket, I didn't have much interaction with them nor miscommunication. The only thing that is difficult is keeping track of outside companies that you have to pay like anesthesia, genetic company and PGT testing. For any new patient entering this journey don't move forward until you understand the medical and financial component.

This clinic is wonderful. The offices and lobby are always neat and clean, and the waiting area is comfortable. The front desk staff will always greet you with kindness and a smile. Appointments are made very efficiently over the phone, and I have never been kept waiting past an appointment time before seeing the doctor. Billing is even around the corner and incredibly helpful - they will answer any and all questions you have about costs of treatment on the spot. If I had just one issue, and it's a slight one, it would be that you can almost never reach a nurse directly in real time - you'll have to leave a voicemail at the nurses' desk, and they will return your call. At times, this can take a few hours, but they never make you wait more than a day for a return call, so it's really a minor issue.

This clinic is wonderful. The offices and lobby are always neat and clean, and the waiting area is comfortable. The front desk staff will always greet you with kindness and a smile. Appointments are made very efficiently over the phone, and I have never been kept waiting past an appointment time before seeing the doctor. Billing is even around the corner and incredibly helpful - they will answer any and all questions you have about costs of treatment on the spot. If I had just one issue, and it's a slight one, it would be that you can almost never reach a nurse directly in real time - you'll have to leave a voicemail at the nurses' desk, and they will return your call. At times, this can take a few hours, but they never make you wait more than a day for a return call, so it's really a minor issue.

I love the clinic as a whole. It's very convenient, clean, easy to schedule appointments, and organized. I feel very well taken care of by all of the staff. I felt less like a fertility factory than Shady Grove.

There's only metered street parking, but there are tons of spaces so you don't have to worry about driving around the block multiple times. The clinic itself is clean, updated, and modern. The receptionists are very helpful and there are dedicated financial coordinators who are there to deal with all of the insurance and payment stuff.

The waiting room is beautiful, as are all the facilities. The billing folks are not super clear, but having encountered others at other clinics, that seems to be par for the course. I saw Dr. Waud for every step - consultations, diagnostic testing, and, unfortunately, D&C and follow-up hysteroscopy procédures.

Arlington location - clean, nice relaxing environment, modern, organized. Receptionists are kind and not rude, which is HUGE. I feel that so many times, doctors' offices have rude receptionists. The wait time is relatively insignificant.

The clinic is very clean and well-organized. The staff is very professional and they have a nice large waiting room. It is a comfortable place to receive treatment. They have available clinic hours for weekend visits to obtain certain treatments or tests. The place seems well-run and we have never had to wait too long to be seen. Sometimes there has been no wait at all. Scheduling appointments has been easy and hassle-free.

I like the clinic a lot. It’s a nice facility that is easy to get to with ample parking. The financial counselor is clear and upfront about costs, and she has been very helpful with communicating with the insurance company on my behalf. I have never had a billing issue. Appointments run on schedule. My calls and emails are always returned that day, and the nursing staff and IVF coordinators are wonderful people. The clinic does have fairly rigid rules about only doing frozen transfers and they almost mandate PGS testing. This may not work for all patients.

The Arlington office is the best! Get there early for monitoring hours.

The clinic as a whole walks you through every step of the process, so there's nothing to tell a new patient. They'll help you as you go along. They were always prompt with paperwork and everything we needed. We were assigned a coordinator who helped order medicine and checked in with us on setting up appointments. The whole process was very smooth.

Very organized, convenient locations and hours, accommodating and competent medical staff. We had a few bumps in the road with billing and some communications that weren't clear. This wasn't typical for them.

I choose Dr. D Matina because he was the longes running partner at the clinic and natural cycle IVF pioneer in the US. However, in hindsight I would have done some more homework and selected Dr. Gordon as my primary endochronologist for a variety of reasons

They are very honest and forthcoming with any information about my history and future cycles. Dr. Gordon explains everything very well so that one can understand. There is so much to take in during an ivf cycle but they all do a great job to help you not to feel overwhelmed.

The clinic is well organized and everybody is very polite. The team of nurses are very skilled and nice. Everybody seems ready to help you and answer your questions. It is not difficult to get an appointment with your doctor; however, doctors don't provide you their emails. If you have questions, you have to contact the nurses. When you call the nurses, you always have to leave a message and then they will call you back. I would prefer that they pick up the calls. I used to get nervous that I would miss their calls and then I would have to leave another message and wait for their call again.

The clinic’s strengths are communication and individualized care. I have found no weaknesses. Things to know are the same for all fertility offices - be prepared to pay prior to receiving services. The costs are high, although I found Dominion to be less expensive than other practices.