How was your experience with Daniel Shapiro at RBA?
I feel like Shapiro genuinely cares about getting you pregnant, and not by doing it the most expensive way possible. Unlike our old RE, he didn’t think we needed IVF based solely one one low number (2% morphology) on my husband’s SA. He talked about completely different possibilities of what could be preventing us from getting pregnant that my old RE never even remotely explored. He spent almost 2 hours in our consultation and goes into great detail when explaining things. He’s very smart, and a little hard to keep up with at times, but you get the sense that he genuinely wants you to understand. I enjoy listening to him, and wish I could have seen him at all of my appointments. I could probably talk about infertility with him for hours. He seems passionate about what he does, and he cares about helping you.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Daniel Shapiro at RBA?
Don’t be afraid to ask him questions if you don’t understand something. Sometimes he can explain things to you as if you were another doctor he’s speaking to, but don’t let that intimidate you. He’s just very smart, and seems to really like talking about infertility. Have questions ready in case he spends a lot of time on one subject, that you forget you wanted to ask him something else. He’s very humorous as well and likes to joke, which totally took me by surprise. I really enjoyed the times I got to speak with him.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Daniel Shapiro at RBA?
At the initial consultation with Shapiro, he spent almost 2 hours with us. He really seems to enjoy explaining things and going into great detail, and I really appreciate that. I didn’t feel like he wanted to rush us out of there at all. He genuinely wanted to be talking to us I think, or else he wouldn’t have spent so much time.
Describe the protocols Daniel Shapiro used in your cycles at RBA and their degree of success.
He believed there might be an egg quality issue, and that oral medication (Femara) with IUI isn’t enough for me. He had me do a low dose HCG injection lead in for egg quality (started day 15 of the cycle before the cycle with the IUI). This continued up until trigger shot. I then started 75 IU of Gonal F in the next cycle on days 8-12. Ovidrel was used for trigger, then the IUI was scheduled for 36 hours later.
Describe your experience with your nurse at RBA. (Assigned nurse: Kelly Fristensky )
Majority of communication with the nurse is done via email which I was fine with. She was pretty quick to respond which was nice. I had a rough start with her, as I couldn’t get a call back. But then I quickly realized email was my best bet. She doesn’t elaborate a lot in emails, or go into much detail, but I assume that’s because she’s busy. Dealing with her in person wasn’t as pleasant as I got the sense she was in a hurry and trying to rush me through my appointments with her after my ultrasounds. That’s something I cannot stand. I drove over 2 hours for every appointment, only to be rushed.
Describe your experience with RBA.
Not speaking about Shapiro, but the rest of the clinic kind of makes you feel like a number. I know they’re busy, and the clinic is huge, but I don’t like feeling like they’re trying to get me out of there as quickly as they can. The front desk ladies are very nice. A couple of the billing people you check out with are nice, but one is an absolute nightmare to speak to. The sonographers are nice, as are the ladies who take your blood. The patient coordinators aren’t easy to deal with. They don’t respond in a timely manner. And the girl who does all of Shapiro’s scheduling is terrible to deal with. She literally never answers the phone when you call. You have to wait every time. I will say that the major drawback about this clinic, and one that has made me reconsider using them for future treatments is that I was told both my consultation and my SHG would be covered by insurance. I was only required to pay my $40 copay for the consultation, and that $287 was my portion of the SHG. My insurance covers testing, and every consultation I had with my old RE was covered. But because of the diagnosis code (female infertility not specified) that RBA is using on these claims, my insurance is denying them. I was never told that the diagnosis code might prevent them from being covered. I’ve asked them to please use a code that doesn’t indicate infertility like my old clinic did, but they’re refusing to. This really upset me considering I had my insurance verified by them, and they told me these two things would be covered, but now they’re coding them in a way to keep them from being covered. I’m not asking them to commit fraud, there are a lot of other valid codes that could be used. It really makes me reconsider using them again.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Daniel Shapiro at RBA.
We ended spending about $2500 for one IUI with injectables - that included all appointments, blood work before cycle and during, medications, and IUI ($600 by itself). But now we probably owe $500 or more due my insurance claims being denied that they told me would be covered.
What specific things went wrong at RBA?
- Provided conflicting information
- Failed to convey critical information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at RBA.
They failed to tell me that even though my insurance covers the consultation and SHG, that it may not be covered depending on the diagnosis code used on the claim.