Beth Rackow

Dr. Rackow was very responsive throughout my treatments, she did not just stick with the status quo if something wasn't working for me (4 egg retrievals, 2 embryo transfers using my own eggs). She changed protocol when the first egg retrieval didn't yield many eggs (we added clomid which helped me immensely), and she changed the embryo transfer protocol to natural with a trigger shot when the first transfer didn't work. The natural cycle with trigger worked perfectly for me and I did not have to take those dreadful intramuscular progesterone shots, a win. She did my early pregnancy ultrasounds with this successful transfer and I was pleased that she could do them personally.

Dr. Rackow is part of an excellent, efficient team. Remember, you are entrusting your fertility care to a large, busy fertility clinic where the doctors have certain days they are in the office and are in charge of procedures. Other days they are assigned elsewhere. This means you may/may not get your main doctor for every procedure or check. If you want a 1 doctor experience, consider a small clinic.

For all egg retrievals I did high dose injectables, and for 3 out of 4 I also used clomid, which helped me release (?) significantly more eggs. In all, I ended up with 4 PGS-tested embryos, one did not make it with the first transfer, the second successfully implanted. I have 2 frozen embryos remaining for possible future use. For the first embryo transfer, we did a traditional medicated cycle that did not result in a positive test. For the second embryo transfer, we did a natural cycle with a trigger shot. This worked great for me.

All but the last egg retrieval and embryo transfer were covered by my insurance.

We both agreed on a single embryo transfer.

Dr. Rackow is very compassionate and is willing to discuss all the details of treatment with her patients. While I didn't get to see her as much during my second cycle she still communicated with me during the process. She adjusted the approach after an initially disappointing first retrieval, and we had a much better result.

Do not be hesitant to ask any and all questions initially. She was very willing to answer them.

$6,300, not including anesthesia. Plus costs of meds.

Dr Rackow is extremely professional and has a very practical approach. She doesn’t sugar coat anything and can at times this can be viewed as a tad be rough around the edges but I actually liked it. It kept me grounded and I felt very informed about what to expect. During the time she saw me she was out of the office for personal reasons so my first two frozen transfers were done by other Drs in the office. My case was unique (as with most) but ultimately the Dr’s who handled my case identified what was the best course of treatment for a successful outcome.

Ask tons of questions and don’t be a shamed to ask more than once.

Very easy and convenient from 7-9 am

My insurance covered $20k for fertility which covered 1 egg retrieval and 1 FET. The meds alone cost $16 k. The remaining 2 cycles & related treatments I had to pay out of pocket which was an additional $20k.

In my scenario it was not recommended to do eSET due to my previous corrective surgeries.

I don't know if Dr. Rackow is really familiar with many of her patients' cases/treatment progress. She was seldom available and I only managed to see her once. Again, I feel that fertility treatment protocols are quite individualized and it is very hard for me, as a patient, to just see whomever is available that day and you can tell they just literally just flipped through your chart moments prior and are now going to decide the course of your treatment. It might be okay with some people, but since I was paying fully out of pocket I was not going to take that gamble.

My insurance only covered up through diagnostic testing. I left after the diagnostic testing. Did not start treatment at Columbia. Little did I know I would be haunted by billing issues for another 9 months. PLEASE CHECK YOUR BILLING STATEMENTS!! I will highlight 2 issues: 1.) On my first visit with Dr. Rackow, as you see from above, was delayed greatly, and Dr. Rackow spent approximately 30 minutes with me going over my medical history and then suggested some lab tests. I was then shuttled off to speak with a nurse who went over when I was supposed to come in for baseline bloodwork, since I was an IVF newbie. Imagine my surprise when I then got a bill from Columbia for $404 for a 60-minute office visit with Dr. Rackow. They billed under code 99205, look it up if you're curious but I guarantee you the criteria under which the clinic was allowed to bill under that code did NOT happen at my visit. Obviously I did not "clock in" or "clock out" the visit but honestly the least amount of time I spent at that office was the actual appointment with Dr. Rackow. When I called the office to inquire, the billing department said they would speak with her and get back to me. They actually did call me back, only to tell me that Dr. Rackow said she had spent a significant amount of time that I was definitely there for an hour. I'm not even sure if Dr. Rackow remembered me as a patient and I thought it was pretty impressive that she remembered how long she spent with me. The ironic thing is when I had another new patient consult with my current RE at another clinic, I was bracing myself for another $400 visit. My new RE saw me on time, ACTUALLY spent over an hour for the visit, and the office only billed my for a 45 minute visit, which was only $118 out of pocket for me. 2.) I was double billed by Columbia for lab tests. Columbia did the blood collection but the analysis gets sent to another lab, typically Enzo Labs. There was a lag by Enzo labs for some genetic tests since they had to verify some things with my insurance so I got the lab bill from Enzo almost 9 months (yea....) after the date of service. I cross referenced it with the bill from Columbia for the same date of service, which came shortly after the office visit to draw blood (sending out bills is one thing they are not slow about), and noticed that Columbia had billed for the blood collection, as well as for the analysis of 3 hormones, under the same code as Enzo Labs, who actually did the analysis. I could not believe I had to call Columbia... again. I thought I was done with them. Spoke with Sara in billing, who told me that she would call me back in a couple of days to let me know what the credit owed to me was. I never got a call back, and when I called after a week Sara no longer worked there! They then transferred to me Sofia Papaderos, the financial services manager, who actually was pretty good about emailing me back at first. However, I found it strange that the manager could not give me a timeline of when or how the credit would be processed (apparently the credit needs several approval signatures prior to issuance of a refund check, again, something you would expect the manager to know about). She then proceeded to tell me that an amended claim needed to be filed with the insurance prior to me getting the refund, but Columbia never sent this amended claim, and again, her exact words were "Not sure on the time frame unfortunately". Then I stopped hearing back from her all together! After over a month of back and forth, I finally somehow just received a refund check in the mail, without needing this so-called amended claim.

I think I spend more time reviewing Dr. Racow than she spend on my case. When I had a follow up appointment she was searching through her computer data for the information about my case as she was unprepared. Most of the visit she was staring at the computer instead of giving us advises or talking about our case. After unsuccessful treatments she wanted us to continue with the same treatment without adjusting anything. Getting questions answered while in a cycle was challenging. There was no email or phone for Dr. Rackow. I left only one message but it was not returned. It felt like you have no one to turn with your questions.

Have as many questions ready as possible. Write them down and go through them. Don't get rushed answers as satisfactory.

Treatment strategies: 50mm clomid, iui, check for pregnancy. result: negative

$4,600 per IUI cycle

N/A

Another cog in the CWRC machine with zero personal knowledge of our case or any real motivation to pull off a successful pregnancy. To give an idea for how bad it was - here is our last visit's description (at which time we decided we are never setting foot again in CWRC) - we had completed 6 IUI cycles by then, with no adjustments made to our medication or plan (we constantly got only one follicle with each clomid cycle) - We setup time with her to figure out if we should move on to IUI. - She spent a good 15 minutes telling us curtly that we should have caught a billing/insurance screw-up that had happened with a blood test earlier in the day (nurse made a mistake with some code, we didn't catch it). - She then proceeded to spend another 10 minutes searching cluelessly through our records and complaining that someone had not organized the records properly. - when we asked for her opinion on whether we should do ICSI and whether we should do PGS with our IVF cycle and she point blank refused to answer, saying it was a decision we should make (we only asked for her expert opinion) - the consult ended at that and we didnt step foot in CWRC after.

Avoid CWRC at all costs. The only reason you go there, and i repeat, the only reason you go to CWRC is if your financial situation requires it (they are not as expensive and accept more insurance plans). If you do have to go to CWRC, avoid Dr. Rackow at all costs. She also btw, only visits CWRC in mid-town once a week for half a day - which means getting time with her for a consult is next to impossible.

Did 6 IUI cycles with Dr. Rackow and was on clomid (though they switched to a different one for a few cycles because of vision side effects). Always got only one mature follicle - never more than one - but she made no changes to the plan.

We didnt have any problems with billing

We did 2 IVFs and several IUIs with Dr. Rackow. One IVF was a complete failure, the other resulted in two frozen embryos that are still at CWRC. Shortly after leaving Dr. Rackow and CWRC, we successfully conceived. The issue with CWRC is that they don't test for everything, and don't communicate what they don't test for. In fact, the issues that were inhibiting our fertility were easily solvable, but during our time with Dr. Rackow and the CWRC, every failure was addressed with statistical charts (eg. You are at "X" age, therefore your IVF success % is "Y"). We were told they had tested for everything. They hadn't. We wasted three years and tens of thousands of dollars at this practice. Ultimately, CWRC are proceduralists.. They are not diagnosticians. When we returned to CWRC after having our child, we recapped the ultimate diagnosis of our fertility challenge and the response we got (from a different doctor there) was simply "We don't test for that". Well, thanks for telling us you had tested for everything.

If you get a diagnosis, great. If you get a shoulder shrug and are reminded of the statistical charts, leave. Also... Look at the fertility success statistics at Cornell and NYU (neither of which we went to for our success). They are superior.

Dr. Rackow is thorough, honest, focused, empathic, matter of fact and to the point but considerate. She listened to all of my concerns, didn't dismiss me, explained things very well to my husband and I, and allowed us to start the process with the least invasive procedure. (Which, knowing what I know now, would skip if I had to do it over.) She was responsive to my needs and was encouraging. She was very upfront about what might and might not work best. She recognized that I was laser focused about this whole process and was okay with that. I grew to love her so much that I was sad to have to leave her for a regular OB when I became pregnant after IVF. But I was ecstatic that I was pregnant!

She is not warm and fuzzy but is kind and considerate in her own way.

She was fantastic. Super smart, compassionate. Was only person who mentioned that part of my fertility problem may be related to a genetic defect - and recommended testing. She was right! Knowledgable about acupuncture and efficacy of supplements. In the end didn't need to go through with IVF as her recommendations for supplements worked. Highly recommend.

Trust that she's very smart and do not be afraid to ask lots of questions. No question is too small or insignificant.