Corporate
chains of IVF clinics seem to have come up with all kinds of creative ways of
extracting money from their patients .
One the
commonest scams I've seen these days is to charge a hefty cycle cancellation
fee.
Thus, all
patients are advised to do IVF, even when the doctor knows they are not likely
to grow any eggs, because they have very poor ovarian reserve.
The IVF treatment
cycle is started , and the patient is asked to pay the full fee in advance as a
deposit. However, when patient doesn’t grow any follicles , the cycle is
cancelled, and the doctor charges a fat fee.
Inspite of knowing
that the patient is not a good candidate
for IVF, the doctor still goes ahead and starts the cycle . What’s worse is
that they deliberately use a low dose of injections to try to reduce the
ovarian response even further, because they make money on canceling the cycle. Sometimes
this is as much as 80% of the total fees, even though the clinic has not
incurred any lab expenses at all.
In our
clinic , our IVF cycle cancellation fees are zero , because we understand the heartbreak
having to cancel a cycle causes, and we don't want to add to the patient’s
misery by levying a financial cost on top of this.
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