Welcome to m New Direction Fertility Centers podcast. We will explore the things that haven't been explored. Things that are more important than things you've thought of before. Lots of things. Even more things. Just kidding. I'm Dr. Mark Amol and this is Taco About Fertility Tuesday. This is the first episode of many. I want to start this podcast because I feel there's a lot of misinformation out there.
I get patients ask me questions all the time about things that they read on, Facebook blog post or heard from their local taco dealer. The point is, I want to make a podcast where each week I'm going to discuss topics I think are important things in the news and answer questions directly from you. Additionally, the reason I started this podcast is because I love tacos. My whole family, we all get together on Tuesdays and we
eat tacos. I also love fertility and to me I thought, I like tacos and I like fertility. Why not we taco about fertility on Tuesdays? One question I get asked a lot is why did we start New Direction Fertility Centers? Was it just an idea I came up with? What was a way to beat other clinics? What's the whole thing behind our clinic? Well, it all starts back when my wife and I had problems having
kids. My wife and I have been together since we were 15 years old and have never had an accident of getting pregnant. I've always wondered there was something wrong. But, like many of you probably didn't want to find out, in medical school, I had multiple friends who were becoming pregnant and we tried and like many of my patients, failed. So when I got to fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, I decided, let's figure out what's wrong. And we saw a
fertility doctor. Now, interesting enough, I was actually always planning on going into fertility. I was fortunate enough to meet a doctor named Dr. Desai who was at the Mayo Clinic when I was rotating as a medical student. And I also knew her when I was a nurse in the or. I fell in love with fertility and knew I would eventually go into it. What I didn't know was that my wife and I were also need fertility. So after seeing the fertility doctor, we found out that I have severe sperm counts.
The only option is ivf. At first we thought, okay, just a male factor problem. That's one of the best prognosis. We started IVF and unfortunately my wife wasn't responding well. So we had to stop the IDEIA process and put a new plan together so we could have a better outcome. Now, although that sounds great, as many of you know, the cost of even five days of treatment is extremely expensive. But we wanted to have a child, and we said, let's go. So again we did another cycle, and this
time we were able to get a few eggs. And luckily two were able to be transferred. One did not implant, but the other did, and it split. And I got my amazing identical twin daughters. I always wanted to be a dad. I don't think I've wanted to be anything more in life than just be a dad. When I got my daughters, so much in my life were fulfilled and my life became more purposeful.
It just further encouraged me to go into fertility, to not only help people, but now have an idea of how I'm helping people since I've gone through it myself. As I continued through my Redan fellowship, I started looking into the cost of ivf. And to my amazement, the cost was nothing near the cost we were charging. I said to my wife, it's interesting. Why did we have to pay so much when the actual cost isn't that much?
And taking a pad and paper, I calculated the actual cost of going through a IVF cycle and determined how many cycles it would take of IVF to get the cost down. I held this belief for many years. I spoke to many people. I spoke to people about business. I spoke to people about the logic I had behind this. But to do it is a different thing. I wanted to do something that hasn't been done, or so I thought. So in 2011, I got a job in Arizona with a great doctor and started practicing.
My dreams of opening up a clinic that's affordable but yet has high success rates would be put on the back burner since the risk was too great to start at that time. After three years of practicing with that doctor, unfortunately, things didn't work out and we had to separate. It was at that time that I determined if I was ever going to do this plan that my wife and I talked about years ago. Today was the day. And so I reached out to a person named Scott Robinson.
And Scott, who worked for a company called Practice Setup, help me build this business. I told him my plan, and he was behind me 100%. While building it, I learned about another doctor who also was doing something similar to me. I reached out to him and asked him, should I be scared or is this going to work? And he told me, it's going to work. At that point, I felt comfortable. I knew my heart was in the right place, my wife's heart was in the right place, and I knew we were going to be
successful no matter what. I just didn't know about the numbers. But after that day, he reassured me. We opened up in 2015 and I remember it was funny. People would come to our clinic and say, so what's the deal? Why are you guys so much cheaper? What's the catch? And I would tell them the truth. I'd say, we make less money. And they laugh and they're like, no, but really, I go, no, really, we really do make less money than everybody
else. But again, on paper, I knew if we were able to do more cycles, then everybody can do it for less money and we can get more people pregnant. I didn't make fertility affordable because I wanted to just make it affordable. I made it affordable because my wife and I had to wait six years between our first IVF and our second
ivf. We couldn't afford to do it again. And to be honest, if we would have failed that first time, I probably wouldn't be a parent, at least with my own kids, and we would have adopted, which I completely support and plan to do myself, possibly in the future. But that wasn't my original plan. And I felt not everyone is fortunate enough to make 16, 20 eggs and some of us might need more than one IVF cycle.
So part of my reason of wanting to make fertility more affordable was not only to open the door to other patients, but to also make it possible for people who can't get pregnant on a one shot basis. Fast forward four years later. We are now one of the more successful clinics in the valley. Our pregnancy rates, our tops and overall, our customer service skills are top notch. I'm not proud of our clinic to become the best when it comes to numbers. I'm not proud of our clinic because we just
get a lot of people pregnant. I'm proud of our clinic because over the last four years we've kept to our mission. We offer fertility affordable and we provide the best care we possibly can. We all truly care. Everyone in that department cares. I handpick everyone and I remind them why we're doing this every day. It's hard sometimes it's hard seeing
people not get pregnant. We work so hard for the same goal and we come up short and don't think for a second that we don't go home wishing the outcome was different too. But I can say after these four years, this has been the most exciting time of my life and, the most rewarding time of my life. And that's why we will continue for years to come to provide high successful fertility rates at extremely affordable rates.
And we're working every day to make other areas of fertility affordable as well. But most of all, I thank all the patients who have made this possible. We don't advertise. We leave it to our patients that tell other patients about us. And it's because of you that we have become so successful. And we will not lose sight of that. Tonight, I wasn't expecting to answer any questions since this is our first episode. And, I didn't think we'd have any questions before the first episode.
However, on the announcement, person named by the name of Jesse asked me to discuss why the costs are so different between states, what that process is for people out of state, and if it's easy. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Levant Pomp the Latin Minute is your new favorite bilingual comedy podcast where two Latinos living in southwest Florida serv up some spicy takes on the hottest celebrities, gossip, juicy cheeseme, and just a
sprinkle of politics. With humor, culture and plenty of laughs, this podcast brings the best of both worlds. So make sure to check out the Latin Minute. You can follow us On Apple Podcast, iHeart and Spotify. Also visit our Facebook page, the Latin Minute. We'll see you there. I think this is a great question because as I discussed tonight, why I wanted to start a clinic that was affordable, I never really grasped how important this would be to people outside of Arizona.
When we first started the clinic, we actually didn't take out of state patients. We had people call us up and ask to be patient, but it was never our plan and so we said no. And then people started flying in from other states pretending to be patients in our state and it blew my mind. I couldn't believe it. Could we be that much more affordable than the rest of the country that people would fly in pretending to be an in state patient just to go through our practice?
It was at this point that I realized it wasn't right to not let out of state patients in and it was harming them by making them have to spend even more money trying to become an out of state patient. So at that time we made the decision to see out state patients. Unfortunately, it did not go well. we were not prepared for it and we definitely heard the feedback of how bad it was. And so we then
closed it. And we explained why we closed it because we just felt our goal isn't just to be affordable, but our goal has always been to provide great care, great stats, and be affordable. I took the feedback that we were given and we then put together an out of state program. We got a nurse just to be an out of state coordinator. We took all the problems that we found and the feedback that we were given and made the program not what it is today, but the foundation of what it is
today. And then built on that. I feel pretty comfortable to say that most of our out of state patients do feel like it's a good experience. I feel one of our systems that has helped a lot is a text messaging service called Clara. And I feel that has really helped. Patients who are out of state feel like they can get answers fairly rapidly and feel like they're always in touch with the clinic. On the day the new patients arrive at our clinic out of state, the state coroner meets with them.
They meet me and throughout the IVF process I'm doing the ultrasounds so I have a chance to ask questions. And I'm always reassuring them it's not perfect yet. We're always working to make it better and we hope to keep making it better. We've m even looked at possibly putting ultrasonnographers in other states to allow patients to stay in their state until the retrieval or the transfer.
So with regards to what the process is like, it usually starts with a ah, consult that starts with my nurse practitioner who is amazing, who basically takes all the information and then compiles it for me. I then review all that information, review the records and then I do a consulte. At that point I'm trying to determine is this the best thing for the patient and what the best proocol will be. I'm asked why do we make people get
these extra labs? Why do I make them repeat certain tests before coming to our clinic? And the reason is because when we first started doing out of stay patients, we found that the testing that was done was so poor by the other clinics that we would make wrong decisions on the protocol and people would get a poor IVF cycle. So at that time we determined we had to use a company with consistency that we felt was accurate. So I can make great decisions to give the best care.
Additionally, there are some clinics who tell people they need to do IVF when they don't need ivf. And I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I knew patients were flying in to do IVF with us and I knew they didn't need it. And so part of the reason why I personally review everything and consult with the patients is to reassure them that if they do need IVF they should proceed with it. And if they don't recommend certain things that they can do to not need to come to our clinic.
Now, from a business point, that doesn't seem to make sense, but anyone who has ever met me knows I don't do this just to make a dollar. I do this because I want everyone to be able to enjoy being a parent like I am. It's one of the greatest things I've ever enjoyed. So to the question of why does the cost vary state to state. This is a very broad question. In general, like all things states to state differences are going be based on supply demand. There are many states who are mandated
where fertility is covered. That will also change the cost of ivf. There are also a lot of clinics who offer mini IVF for a lower cost. And it's important to understand that what we are doing is not a mini ivf. We are not giving you a lesser service, lowering the cost. We are providing you the highest service at a lower cost. Now the question isn't how do we get the cost lower. The question really is why do they charge so much? And this comes down to supply and demand.
If more people are going through IVF then you can charge less because you'make up the differences in the number going through. If the clinic is seeing fewer patients, then they will need to increase their cost of their services to be able to keep up with overhead. I think one of the most important aspects of this is that years ago clinics like CCRM who were considered some of the best in the country were making their own media or making their own incubators. They were doing
everything from scratch. But today everything is pre made. Most of the things that we use are made by other companies. So the reliability is high and the reproducibility is high. So therefore, if you know this, through the country rates are starting to become the same across clanks. Ensure there are some that are better. We obviously strive to be better, but in the end it's not like the rates are 70% at one clinic and 30% at another.
That's extremely uncommon. To c the difference is now between the very best clanks and the average clinic are maybe 10 to 20% differences in pregnancy rate. Now, yes, that is obviously a big difference, but the point is it doesn't justify the cost anymore. Although we are unique in trying to be the top clin in the country and they'affordable I hope that there are many other clinics who will
also become affordable. And even if they don't have the top Rates people will understand it's still worth it to go there then to pay other clinics more money for almost the same service. The one thing I can definitely tell you is this. It does not cost as much as other clients charge for ivf. The materials don't cost that much, the time doesn't cost that much, the staff doesn't cost that much.
Unfortunately, fertility is one of those things that we all want and right now there is not a lot of coverage for. And so supply is plentiful and demand is plentiful and they can charge those prices. But there will be a time which I believe will not be too much further in the future where there will be multiple clinics like ours offering affordable fertility.
And when there is plenty of us, the prices will come down everywhere just like in many other markets when clinics like myself come in to disrupt them. This is not a me against them moment. I actually love all my colleagues. I think they're all great people. I just think that until fertility becomes affordable, it's just not right. Fertility will always be expensive because hope is a very strong motivator. I don't believe the other doctors want to make more money off of people.
I don't believe the other fertility clin are greedier. I think they just don't understand it could be done this way. I have many, many people ask me how do you see this many patients? How do you do it? And yes I do work hard. When I come to work at 8am, I leave at 5pm and yet I'm able to still do it. And I think once they realize that the model they are using is outdated or is perfect for maybe a niche group of people, then most, of them will turn to what I'm doing.
Anyways, thanks for the question Jesse. Now on a serious note, what is my favorite taco? This is one of my toughest questions I think I've been asked. And it's tough because there are a lot of good tacos out there. Some tacos are technically not even tacos such as the Jack in the Box taco. It not a taco but it sure tastes good. But when I look deep down and ask whats my favorite taco, it has to be the one that I make at home with my family. There's just nothing like making your own tortillas.
A warm tortilla, warm meat and family around you. Thanks everyone for being part of the show today. I hope you enjoyed this first episode, although there wasnt much to it. I look forward to your questions and next week, I answer them. Have a great week. And I'll see, you next week for taco about fertility Tuesdays.