The Cornell Center For Reproductive Medicine

I went to Weil Cornell because wanted to get a second opinion on whether a polyp was worth removing before having IVF. It was a misery all around, which came as a surprise because I know several women who had successful pregnancies here.
1. At the time of appointment, they said they accepted my insurance. When I got the EOB and bill, it said that the doctor was not an in-​network doctor. What kind of gotcha is that, to say you take the insurance because technically, you can bill the insurance, but you’re not actually an in-​network provider?
2. I missed my window for getting the images I needed to take with me for the 2^nd opinion, so I called to cancel the appointment. They said I should keep the appointment because the doctor would want to have background. I pointed out I wouldn’t have anything for him to look at — they said go ahead and keep the appointment.
3. I get there and the doctor basically starts doing intake as if I was going to do IVF with him. I stopped him mid-​way and said I’m here for this second opinion, and he said well of course he can give a second opinion, but he has nothing to look at. I tell him what day I am in the cycle, and he says well, let’s take a look — and then after the exam, he says he couldn’t see anything because it’s the wrong part of the cycle. Note this is AFTER I told him what day in the cycle I was. Says to come back at the right part of the cycle.
4. So then I go back (why? why?) at the right part of the cycle, and he says «why are you here if you’re not doing IVF with me?» and I’m like because I asked you for an opinion on this growth, and you said to come back and you would do the exam?!? He then goes, of course, I’m a doctor and I can give you an opinion on this — and then AFTER he does the exam says, practically anyone can look at this thing and remove it if it needs to be removed, so you should just go back to your doctor. OMG — was he unfamiliar with the meaning of «second opinion»? If he didn’t want to accept a patient looking for a second opinion, he could have a) said so to begin with, or b) said so at the first totally unnecessary sales pitch meeting, or c) not suggested making an appointment for the exam, or EVEN d) expressed his so very helpful post-​exam opinion before doing the exam! What is this, a used car lot?
5. In all of this, the wait time at the place was an hour each time. I said to the ladies behind the desk, is this normal for appointments to run late, and they said, yes — totally normal to wait up to a *couple* hours. Are you kidding me. At my «regular» reproductive endo, I’ve never waited longer than about 20 minutes, and that was once or twice out of many many visits.
6. I just have to circle back to #1 at this point — because it really came as adding insult to injury when I got the bill, showing that he’s not even an in-​network doctor.

NOPE. No no no no no no no. Dealing with infertility is really emotional and really hard. You’re going to cry anyway, but you shouldn’t be crying because of your fertility clinic.
I’m generously giving these guys two stars because I really loved my doctor here. She was intelligent, well-​versed in what she does, an obvious science and surgery geek, and delightful to speak with.
I’m ONLY giving them two stars because I got to see this doctor about as you get to see Bigfoot. Here’s what you need to know about Weill-​Cornell Center for Reproductive Medicine, that I wish I’d known before I entrusted six months of my life (and a lot of tears) to them:
1. There’s no way to get ahold of your doctor, by e-​mail or phone. You have to call an assistant. The assistant never picks up her phone and will never call you back.
2. They have «cattle-​call» monitoring hours from 7 – 8:45 a.m. You know how you’re supposed to get a lot of sleep when you’re trying to get pregnant? Yeah, not so much with these guys. During these monitoring hours, you’ll wait between 5 minutes and 1.5 hours to see a doctor. Yes, 1.5 hours. Even if you have an appointment. (Note: some fertility clinics do early-​morning cattle-​call hours, others are more flexible and let you make an appointment like a civilized human.)
3. The Tribeca office has very limited services and is only open on weekdays. For anything related to IUI or IVF besides monitoring (ultrasounds and blood draws), you have to go to their main branch, which is located more or less in the East River on 70^th street, as far as humanly possible from a train. Every once in a while, they just won’t have doctors in the Tribeca office at all, and the assistant will smugly tell you that you need to go up to York Ave when you’ve already hauled your ass out of bed at 6 am. There’s no indication on their website of when your doctor will or won’t be in. You just have to guess. A lot of times you’ll be wrong.
4. The York Ave location is literally hell on earth. It’s the size of a football field and always packed. It smells like desperation.
5. They’ll send your bills to collections before you even get a chance to pay them. When you call the number on your bill to ask a question, the people from the NUMBER ON YOUR BILL will tell you that you called the wrong number. They’ll give you a different number. You’ll call and get a voice recording. You’ll wait on hold. They’ll offer to have someone call you back. Don’t fall for it. Nobody will call you back. Just wait until someone picks up. It may be a while.
Seriously, this is no way to treat a woman who’s trying to have a baby. Weill-​Cornell has one of the best success rates in the country, but the stress of dealing with them will lower your rate of success considerably. I implore you: go with a clinic that treats you like a human being instead of a statistic. Your future baby will thank you.

A waste of time and money on all fronts!
— Always long lines.
–You can’t reach your doctor by phone; you can only leave a message to an assistant and, if you called early morning and if you are lucky enough, you may receive a call back from a nurse or an assistant the same day but never from a doctor.
— You can’t reach your doctor even if you have an emergency
— My insurance covers lab tests, but their blood tests were not covered because they don’t send your tests to a lab — they do them in-​house! Nobody ever explained me that. I had about 10 tests within a month and, eventually had to pay $ 300 our of my pocket (while it would have been free at many other places)
— Two times they made a mistake in taking the right blood test. They took it once, and then a few minutes later (while I was still there waiting for the u/​s), said they had to take more blood.
— You can’t set up an appointment digitally, you can’t communicate via email and you can’t receive your medical results online. They do not use Weil Connect (the rest of the Medical center does)
— It’s been a month since I’m waiting for my medical records. First, my primary care doctor sent a request (mid-​June), then I did it on ⁷⁄₁₅. Twice they told me that a person responsible for my request was not in the office and asked to call back the next day. Now they are saying they are waiting for a doctor’s signature to release the records. In the meantime, my other treatments are postponed because I can’t bring the medical records…
The whole experience with Weil Cornell was terrible, unfortunately. They have a poor customer service and they don’t care about their patients at all.

Please avoid.
Just a place that makes a lot of mistakes that will cost you money and time, which sometimes the infertility patients font have much left.
They are good only for research, not to treat a real time patient, plus you will never get A doctor, instead will be seen by everybody, which will

They seem highly competent, but their practice epitomizes everything wrong with American medicine. I’ll only give 4 low-​points.
1. My insurance covers the doctor’s services, but not the Center for Reproductive Medicine. No one could tell me what the implications were.
2. My appointment was at 9:30 am, so first thing in the morning, but I sat in the waiting room until 10:30 am. When they finally called me, they gave no apology or explanation.
3. At the end of the appointment, the computer screen next to the examining table showed a list of 10 patients and their birth dates. That’s a HIPAA violation, I’m fairly certain.
4. Everything in the middle showed that same low level of consideration, coming down to them asking me to take off my pants and cover myself with a flimsy paper sheet before taking my blood.
By contrast, I went to Johns Hopkins reproductive endrocrinology for several months, never had to wait an hour for an appointment, never had other patients’ birthdates revealed to me, had my blood taken when fully dressed, and billing was extremely clear.