Safa Rifka

If you can try other doctor in DC, please stay away from Dr. Rifka! My experience with him was horrible. I went to see Dr. Rifka on March 31(Thursday Morning) and wanted to consult on egg freezing options. I told him that another doctor at this clinic (who left) introduced the egg freezing to me seven years ago while I was single and I told him I am married now and had a baby recently. I also told him I wanted to preserve my fertility possibilities as my husband and I want more kids. He seemed very reluctant to spend time talking to me. Our total conversation was about 6-7 minutes and he told me to do a blood test and also guaranteed me that he would let me know whether I am a good candidate for egg freezing and also let me know the estimate of the expenses. I received a call from his nurse that afternoon who told me to go to the office on April 4. I went to the office on April 4 and a nurse delivered a calendar to me and also gave me some birth control pills. The whole process took about five minutes. No explanation on the process or my blood test results. Based on the calendar, I should take birth control pills until the next appointment with Dr. Rifka on April 25. On April 13, I received a lab result from Quest Diagnostics showing my AML is extremely low. I wrote to Dr. Rifka inquiring my treatment plan, my lab results, and the costs estimate as I have never received any financial information from his billing team, and requested a follow-up consultation ASAP. His staff called me and arranged a follow-up consultation on April 20. My husband and I went to see Dr. Rifka together. My husband brought up topics related to egg freezing, embryo freezing, and IVF which he learned by some google search. Dr. Rifka explained the differences. I asked Dr. Rifka why he did not explain all these options to me on the first visit and he said "You Did Not Ask and You Said You Wanted to Know Egg Freezing." After discussing the pros and cons of egg freezing and embryo freezing with him, my husband and I decided to go with embryo freezing. He then suggested disregarding the current calendar I have, and starting over the entire process again. I got confused and I asked him why I needed to start over again and he answered the two processes are completed different. I did not trust him and brought out the calendar and read the instructions of the calendar in front of him. When he saw my calendar, he asked "Have you already taken birth control pills"? I answered "YES, YOUR NURSE GAVE THEM TO ME ON APRIL 4 AND I HAVE TAKEN THESE PILLS FOR 16 DAYS"! He then said "we can still use this calendar...." I also ask him the estimate costs and he said his billing department will let me know soon. Also, he started showing me the blood test results I did on March 31 which also shows I have very low egg reserves. My concerns about this doctor: 1. He did not share the blood test result (which shows actually I have very low egg reserve and may not be a good candidate of egg/embryo freezing) with me until my second visit; 2. He forgot that he delivered a calendar to me and already put me on birth control for 16 days when I saw him again; 3. Very bad communication. 4. He never thinks for the best for the patient. He spent less than 10 mins on a consultation before initiating a treatment plan. Patient has no idea where the entire process is heading to. 5. His financial team never reached out to provide an cost estimate. 6. There is no medical information on my patient portal. I requested them to upload my medical records and lab results twice and nothing has been posted. My husband and I decided to switch to another doctor which we think is one of the best decisions we have made.

STAY AWAY FROM HIM

Never got an cost estimate

I wish I had picked another doctor who could deign to be more informative and less paternalistic. DC has a dearth of providers so I picked this clinic based on CDC live birth stats. One of the biggest failures was not assigning a triage schedule for handoffs because intervention is so time sensitive.

Go to another practice if you have to cross state lines, or pick another physician—but you will still have to deal with the negligent office practices.

Dragged feet and wanted us to pay for IUI when IVF would have had higher indication of success considering both parents’ age. I had a complication after egg retrieval: no one checked in with me so I had to seek urgent care, and no one asked about how I was tolerating ovarian stimulation meds. I had a singular positive experience with one nurse who only works occasionally and offered assistance with triggering.

Copays of about 3.5-4K