Guess What?!

We received a bill from the new clinic that I asked Mark to look into (I am trying to keep personal business to a minimum with the new job).  When we did our consent signing last month we were asked to give the clinic a deposit.  Either the deposit was not taken into account with the amount billed....or the new clinic is WAY more expensive than the old clinic.  I am guessing that the deposit was somehow missed.

We got the deposit situation ironed out which was good news (they had somehow missed it)....but we still owed more money than we expected.  We owed $1,743 more to be exact and we owed it because we had to switch clinics.

Part of the IVF process is the "mock" embryo transfer.  The mock transfer is actually a trial run of the actual embryo transfer which allows the doctor to determine the best "route" to the ideal embryo landing place in the uterus, to measure the length from the cervix to that ideal place (this is to avoid accidentally "bumping" the uterine wall which can cause a failed transfer), and to ensure that there are no unexpected bumps along the way like an undetected fibroid, scar tissue on the cervix, or other issue that may make transfer difficult or even impossible.

Basically the embryo transfer seems like it is the simplest procedure in the IVF cycle, but if it is done wrong the entire cycle can be lost - making the "mock" transfer a crucial step in the process.

Because this is such an important process, each doctor tends to want to do it themselves and not rely on some other doctor's notes.  A mock transfer was already completed (and paid for - out of pocket I might add as insurance doesn't cover ANY fertility treatments) at the old clinic, so having to do it again at the new clinic meant that we got to pay for it twice.  Thanks old clinic.

Mark is pretty fired up about this.  He thinks that we should sue the old clinic.  As much as it pisses me off that we had to pay for an expensive procedure twice because we switched clinics, and the fact that we switched clinics was due to circumstances beyond our control, (Mark likes to say it is because our old doctor is an A-hole) it is not a good idea to try to sue the clinic for damages.

1) Get in line - there are A LOT of other couples who were affected by the clinic closing and many of     these other couples are probably out more money that we are.

2) The legal fees are more likely to be in excess of $1,743.  If we win then the clinic should cover            them as part of the settlement.  If we lose we out out the $1,743 plus the legal fees.

3) Without getting into exact dollars, we have already driven the equivalent of a pretty nice car (how        nice you ask - let's just start with the fact that it would have burl wood interior) off of a cliff               (before even taking into the costs of our most recent GC endeavor).  $1,743 is an option package.

So we agreed that our old doctor is an A-hole and decided that this is just a minor set back in the grand scheme of things.

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