Aaaghh! $ at Repormed

Hey Nurses27.. thought i'd start a new thread rather than continue to highjack the other one! Well, I am gobsmacked!!!! I rang repormed accounts to clarify re semen storage fees and was told it is $200 every 6 months but you don't start paying it until after the first cycle. I thougt it was a bit unusual but it made sense that that was why we had not yet been billed for it. The accounts woman then proceeded to comment that we should have been charged a '"donor work up fee", she wasn't sure why we had not been invoiced for one and that it was $1400. She said she would speak to the donor co-ordinator who she would get to ring me. I then get a phone call from the donor co-ord who says yes, we should have been charged such. I asked why we hadn't been told of it before and apparently in the whole system the doctors told you at the first appt and in the new system the donor co-ord does it. Apparently we have been straddling the old/new system and the upshot was that no-one told us! She apologized and I'm just trying to get my head around the extra, unplanned for $1400 and asked her what it exactly covered when she tells me that the fee has gone up to $10,700!!!!!!!! WHAT the !!!!!!! This is completely mind boggling. I don't undertsand it, she then says that actually we probably should have been charged the $10,700 due to x,y and z. By now I was hardly following her explanations at all! I said it shed a whole new light on it as the main reason we were even needing IVF was sperm issues and when we had found that out our obstetrician at the time suggested changing donors which we did not want to and here we are a year later and I don't know how we can find another $10K. I didn't even get as far as asking when it had to be paid by as aby now I'm on the phone in tears, a bubbling mess and she's still seemingly trying to work out whether we should be charged $1400 or $10,700 as when we had our first appt they had not even worked out the new fee yet!! IN the end she said she would have to speak to the manager and to the doctors and she would get back to me but that it wouldn't be until after wednesday! I was upset and seething but trying desperately to be nice as I feel like I'm in their hands..... so guess this has turned into a bit of a vent. Have you found out anything from flindes re their costs.. I am now thinking of contacting them but the thought of starting the whole process over again is a bit daunting!

:o Hey DrGirl, Sorry I haven't replied, I have been working nights so have been like a vegetable. I hope that you got good news from Repromed yesterday. I would love to chat with you but can't pm you....can you pm me?? I have some excellent news from Flinders, and that will be where we are going and I want to share that with you!

Hi nurse27, this is quite embarrassing but i'm not a techno savvy person, don't know how to pm, have never used it but will try and pm my mobile no as i am keen to talk with you. great news re flinders, we have had some good news from repormed which i will share with you also. girldoc

My goodness!! Well $1400 or $10,700...either way I don't think you should have to pay this! They have admitted that you were probably not told and I don't think it's fair to dump the costs on you now!!

The fact is you may have held off on treatment or gone somewhere else if you knew all the facts, I would ask to speak to someone high up explain your case and explain why they quoted you a price and now that they have done the things covered under said price they cannot add more money to it! Surely that is actually illegal

DrGirl72 I dont know how to pm or anything either lol we accepted your friend request. If we can't work it out I will post my number if I have 2! My email addy is mummajandk(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au if you want to give that a try. Im not sure if you can post email addressed but we will give it a go :)

Hi Nurse27, I have been trying to work out the PM thing and I think I can't PM you until you have a certain no of posts. Thanks for the email address, wasn't sure if we could post numbers etc in forums. I.m now going to move to other computer downstairs to email you!

Also to Nurse27 and Jas, its a lengthy story but they are saying they will only charge us $1400, that it should be the higher amount but they acknowledge their stuff up. While part of me is tempted to fight them we are just reliieved not to have to find another $10k and don't want to prolong things by a drawn out battle as the other thing that has changed is we now have an appt next week with plans for 1st ICSI cycle to start the week after and we don't want to stuff it up. Its a bit sad they have so much power/control in the situation but I feel I need to try to stay positive and move on, girldoc

Hi DrGirl and Nurse27

I have been reading your threads and thought maybe I would jump in here and offer my help if you feel you need any...:p

My partner and I live in Qld after moving here from NSW in Oct 07. We have one son, who was conceived at home with a known donor after previously going through two rounds of AI at a clinic in sydney, and one round of IVF/ICSI -We were lucky we ended up with our donor and had success pretty much straight away with the home method. We are planning on trying for our next baby using the same donor and the same "home" method early next year.

Anyway the point here is if you would like to chat and just ask questions, im happy to help any way i can.

Cheers
Levi

Hi Levi,

My partner and I have had a few unsuccessful attempts at home insemination.
I would love to hear any 'tips' you have...

Thanks Cath

Hi Cath,

feel free to email me at fionavaughan@hotmail.com and we can chat in abit more detail and privacy.

Happy to help in any way I can.

Cheers
levi;)

Hi Levi, Thanks for the offer. I have two sons (10 and 8 years), who were conceived at home with a known donor when I was with my now ex. She is the biological mother of both of them and they live week about between the two houses. So when my partner and I started TTC over 18 months ago I felt pretty confident I knew what we were doing! My sons were conceived on the third and second tries so it was pretty quick (seemed an eternity at the time 'tho). I am curious that you went from IVF back to home AI. We have stopped trying ourselves at home in the inbetween months since starting IVF. What made you stop IVF and return to the 'do it yourself' method? Good luck with ttc your next child, would love to hear more from you, Girldoc

Hi Dr Girl,

sorry for the late reply chirstmas craziness - I hope you had a great christmas and a good new year? :) well in anwser to your questions - i guess we stopped ivf because it was too draining and emotionally devoid of what we should have been feeling - ie excitement. so we tried the home method - given that we hadn't really given it a good go the very first few times we tried (with a different donor) and after a few months perfecting - we had success! We were foolish to attempt ivf first without trying the home method first, but when you want to have a baby we seemed to rely more readily on scientific medicine rather than just believing that sperm will meet egg in the traditional fashion. I just hope that the home method works again for us in the first few months that we try....I guess I have age on my side (although that doesn't even ensure a positive and easy ride).....although it does help...

How are you going? any success?

Cheers
Levi