Reproductive Endocrinology Associates of Charlotte

It has taken me almost two months to begin to move forward after our experience with REACH. I did not want to write an angry review fueled by my emotions. Finally, I am ready to share the facts about my experience to those that are really going to need it.
1. Everyone there is incredibly helpful and friendly until they receive your loan. Once they receive the money from your loan, do not expect any of your calls or emails to be returned. (The way it works there is every procedure must be paid for up front. Unfortunately our insurance does not cover anything related to fertility, so after talking to our financial counselor and determining how much we would need we decided a loan was in our best interest. The loan they tell you to apply for goes straight to REACH.)
2. If you go the loan route, I recommend taking out a personal loan, even through the same company (for example, the lending club) so that way you are in control over how much money REACH receives. Before you pay them a dime ask for itemized bills. Otherwise, you take out this loan for a few thousand and the office stops communicating with you. There is no way to know what each service is costing. Do not bother asking anyone other the financial counselor what the services cost because no one seems to have a clue. We were told by our financial counselor that the IUI and monitoring/​testing included was one flat rate which was incorrect. We ended up still owing them money after the loan was used up. We were told we would have money left over and receive a check for that amount. That was also not the case. We were always told we would receive an itemized list of what our loan was covering and only received a complicated and almost cryptic ledger at the end after we threatened them with a lawyer.
3. They stopped returning our calls/​emails before the IUI procedure took place. It’s bad business practice to not return a client or patient’s messages regardless. However, this put an incredible amount of stress on me and my husband. Any amount of unnecessary stress while trying to conceive is harmful to the conception process. Our first round of IUI was unsuccessful. I am not at all surprised. My gripe isn’t with the IUI not working on our first try, but with the way they treat their patients.
4. During the IUI procedure itself, Dr. Johnson had trouble inserting the catheter which resulted in a lot of pain and severe cramps. She changed catheters several times, then asked for the tech to use the ultrasound to determine where it was in the uterus. The doctor then said, and I repeat verbatim, «I THINK it’s in the right spot» and completed the procedure. I don’t think anything else needs to be said about that except my husband and I were shocked. We had no words.
5. Over the course of several weeks trying to get in touch with someone at REACH to help us and answer our questions, my husband finally got in touch with the someone and relayed our complaint. She apologized and recommended we email the Executive Director with our experience. It has now been almost a month, we have received no phone call or email from the Executive Director regarding our experience. Sadly, I Am sure he gets these complaints all the time. Sadly the reviews for REACH prove that this has been an ongoing issue for several years now.
UPDATE: It is important to you to know that there was no record of my IUI procedure. No procedure note, no documentation whatsoever. I paid the fee to obtain my records and the records were incomplete. We asked for the records for the IUI and were told that they only document if something goes wrong or if it results in successful pregnancy. There is no way that can be true or legal. We sent them an email with one last request for them to right their wrong. This email was sent to two of their doctors, the executive director, and a financial counselor. Not one person has cared to respond. We will be disputing the charges with the financing company, as well as filing a formal complaint with Mecklenburg Co and a formal complaint with the Medical Board. It could have been so easy. Nothing we asked for was unreasonable. It is absolutely appalling that they would treat their patients this way. This facility has FRAUD written all over it, and won’t be able to get away with it much longer!

I don’t often write reviews for places but I felt this time I needed to speak up. My first patient visit went fairly well until I got home and realized the Dr. was ordering us to do expensive procedures right off the bat without even outlining or explaining it to my husband and I. Then when I called back for clarification, I found out the only way to talk to the doctor directly was to make another appointment. After three attempts to the financial department about how much these procedures would cost, I finally got an answer and payment is due before treatment. Who has that kinda of cash just laying around? When I finally had things worked out with the nurse and went to set up the appointments for our preliminary tests, I got the run around but was told by my nurse they would set up my appointments when the lab tech came back from vacation. Next thing I know I get an over-​nighted letter stating they were discharging me from the practice with no explanation as to why. I have been diagnosed with anxiety so I am assuming they just don’t know how to handle patients that may need a little extra attention. Fertility treatment in itself can cause anxiety so they should be used to patients being nervous. I am sure this place has helped many woman before but they clearly do not know how to handle patients with anxiety and were very unprofessional when it comes to working out the problem. If you have anxiety, I strongly recommend using a different place. I hope my review helps other women out there so this will not happen to them. Be well and good luck conceiving. Hopefully I will have better luck somewhere else.

First, let me say this is the first review I have ever written in my life but my experience at REACH has been so bad that I really felt the need to let others know. After struggling with infertility for a year my GYN offered to refer my husband and I to either REACH or CMC. She did say the feedback she’s heard about REACH though is their communication is awful so I originally went with CMC. Unfortunately there was a 2 month wait so ended up at REACH. The initial visit was great– the doctor and nurse were nice and everything went smoothly… then it was all downhill. Absolutely everything after that was a fiasco. I won’t mention everything but just to give an idea– it took me following up to get my test results over a week later. When I did get the results the lady just read a bunch of numbers to me without any explanation. It has been 2 months and my husband NEVER got his results but we did get the bill :) I had to call several times to follow up on a procedure that was never scheduled. I told them I could not schedule it for the next month because my cycle was off and they scheduled it anyway. They contacted the wrong insurance company regarding the procedure and then said they were going to email me with the costs (after talking to the correct insurance company) and the email never came. I finally just gave up. Now, I’m trying to get my records and faxed in the release– 2 weeks and 3 phone calls later I have not even received a call back.
They may be fantastic at treating women’s infertility issues and I am sure that they have helped many women but my experience was awful. If you choose REACH just be prepared…
*Update as of September– I never ended up getting a return phone call in my quest to get my medical records. I ended up driving to their office (the day before I moved out of state!!) to pick them up in person. The man that helped me was very nice and said he had no idea what happened to my request or why my numerous messages went unanswered. Anyway, I was given my records and not charged since I had to ‘go out of my way’. Well come to find out the records were incomplete and several of my husband’s results are missing. He has now spent the past several days on the phone trying to track down his records. The one time he managed to get a person on the phone (rather than VM) the person told them they didn’t know where the records were but would look for them and call back… still no call. Here we go again…
This is place is awful!!!

I posted this review on their other listing as well.
Very disappointed in this place. I have read a few good reviews on it and since I’ve been fighting infertility, my husband and I decided to go there for help. At our consultation we were given a print out of everything that will and won’t be covered by our insurance; everything looked great so we started treatments. By my second round of treatments I was told nothing was being covered by insurance and I found out it was because of coding issues, after going back and forth with them and my insurance I was told all they needed to do was fix the code and my appointments would be covered 100% and Dr. Katz refused to take the time to do it and now we’re stuck with a very large bill. The billing department called me over our balance and after explaining what happened, they didn’t care at all to help, I told them I was going to call them back in a few days to discuss the balance and figure out payment arrangements. Like I said I would, I called back and called back, left message after message and no one will return my calls to get this taken care of and they were talking about sending my account over to a collections agency! They claim they provide compassionate customized care for every patient, but that isn’t true; when you walk in the door you’re treated as a number, you’re in and out of your appointment so fast it will make your head spin. They don’t take the time to explain things, answer questions, or anything except during the initial consultation. You don’t even get to see your own doctor. I saw Dr. Katz at my consultation and didn’t see him again after that, I only saw Dr. Whitesides for a total of 2 minutes while he did each ultrasound at each of my appointments.
Don’t think that this is the only place to go for help if you are battling infertility, there are other great places out there that don’t nickle and dime you. Thankfully I found an OBGYN who does infertility monitoring and treatments and they are working with my insurance to get my appointments covered 100% and their charges are worlds different than REACH. IUI at my new doctor is $ 365 not including medication, IUI at REACH is well over $ 700 and that isn’t including the appointments and medication. Save yourself the stress and money and look for somewhere better so you’re not stuck dealing with what I’ve been dealing with.