one more insult? I don't think so...

The fertility centre that I have been attending so far is splitting into four physicians that I like, that are all moving to a new centre, and one physician that is staying behind, that I did not have a good encounter with during my egg retrieval.  Not much choice in terms of where I want to go next, obviously.  However, to transfer the two frozen embryos to the new lab, I was just told by the old clinic that it would cost 500$.  It used to be 300$ when the clinic was under old ownership.  The new owner (i.e. the doctor I don't like much) increased the price to 500$.

I am all for paying to cover the costs.  I understand that one must buy liquid nitrogen, and that there are tanks and shipment fees and administrative fees, and although I don't have much choice in the matter, I guess I will have to supply the funds for transferring my embryos.  And, as an IVF patient, I am used to paying enormous sums of money for things that others don't have to pay a cent for.  I realize that life is not fair and that it is only so much I, as an individual, can fight the system.  But, I have a sneaky suspicion that in this case I am being overcharged.  So, I phoned and let the old clinic know that I am intending to make a complain to the College of Physicians in order to have a bigger and better dog investigate the ethics of the whole shebang.

Within minutes the doctor that now owns the clinic phoned me and said that the fees are still 300$, and that the receptionist was wrongly advised, and that nobody is trying to make money off the whole affair.  I don't know what to believe now.  I have sufficient experience with running a medical practice to know that something is not too clear here.  And I am not in the business of complaining, this would be a first.  But at least I hope that the new owners are not going to be making money off us, the patients, who are already being cheated on by nature and more or less abandoned by the government who is not spending a cent on our treatment.  Darn it if I am going to let one more insult add to the litany.