Shady Grove Fertility Has Approved Three in Four Applicants for Discounted Fertility Treatmen

Dec. 22, 2009 - PRLog -- Rockville, Md.  – Since launching its Shared Help financial discount program for fertility treatment early this year, Shady Grove Fertility Center has helped make the dream of parenthood more affordable for over 275 infertile couples.

Designed to help make infertility testing and treatment more affordable, the Shared Help Program offers discounts to Shady Grove Fertility Center (SGFC) patients with no insurance coverage and limited personal resources to cover the out-of-pocket expenses. Of 374 Shared Help applicants through October 31, 2009, 74 percent were approved for discounts on infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), intrauterine insemination (IUI), donor egg and more.  On average, six applicants per week have been approved so far in 2009.

“Our top priority at Shady Grove Fertility Center is to clear obstacles our patients face who are trying to start a family,” said Michael J. Levy, M.D., an SGFC board-certified reproductive endocrinologist, and the brainchild behind Shared Help as well as SGFC’s other innovative financing options.  “In fact, Shared Help is just one of several innovative options we offer to lessen the financial stress of the infertility journey and associated decision-making.”

Shared Help provides SGFC patients, whose income is $85,000 or less and who meet additional criteria, with a 10- to 50-percent discount off the cost of most fertility services provided by SGFC. The percentage discount is based on annual household income as confirmed by two years of U.S. federal tax returns. Program criteria can be found on their website http://www.ShadyGroveFertility.com.

“There’s no way we could have afforded more than two cycles of IUI without Shared Help unless we’d put it on our credit card,” said Emily, a 26-year-old cosmetologist from Cecil County, Md., who – along with her husband – is about to undergo her second round of intrauterine insemination at Shady Grove Fertility Center’s Bel Air, Maryland office, one of 12 locations throughout Baltimore and Washington, DC.  The couple’s health insurance only covers infertility blood work and diagnosis, and their savings were minimal since her husband lost his job a year ago and wasn’t able to find a job for six months.  Shady Grove offered a 40-percent discount for each IUI cycle.  “We’d heard the Shady Grove Fertility Center radio ads and my husband’s cousin had both her daughters from IVF treatments there.  And our experience this fall has been very positive.”

An additional financing option Shady Grove Fertility Center offers is Shared Risk, which covers up to six IVF or Donor Egg treatment cycles and guarantees a 100-percent refund if a baby is not delivered.  For more information, visit http://www.shadygrovefertility.com/affording_treatment.

About Shady Grove Fertility Center

Shady Grove Fertility Center is America’s largest fertility center based not only on the number of practicing physicians but also on the number of in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles performed annually (more than 4,000), which is more than all other Baltimore/Washington area fertility clinics combined.  Twenty-five reproductive endocrinologists, Ph.D. scientists and geneticists, as well as 350 specialized staff care for patients in 12 full-service offices throughout the Washington, DC, and Baltimore areas.  Shady Grove Fertility Center offers a comprehensive range of fertility treatment options including IVF, donor egg, intrauterine insemination (IUI), preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and integrative holistic care, as well as resources to address all patients’ needs—medical, emotional, and financial.  Shady Grove Fertility conducts clinical research in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and is part of their subspecialty training Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology.  Since Shady Grove Fertility’s inception in 1992, more than 15,000 IVF babies have born to its patients.  Shady Grove Fertility physicians have been featured as experts for comment on media outlets such as NBC’s The Today Show, The New York Times, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show (WAMU-FM 88.5, Washington, DC), and Parent Magazine.  Washingtonian magazine listed Shady Grove Fertility among the area’s Best Places to Work in 2007.  Visit www.ShadyGroveFertility.com

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Located in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metro areas, Shady Grove Fertility is America’s largest and most progressive fertility center with 25 reproductive endocrinologists performing over 4,000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles annually.