How much does an IVF cycle cost?

Seems like a simple question. But as this week’s guests explain, it’s not.

The way most of us account for “an IVF cycle” hides how many individual work orders and variables are actually involved. That lack of clarity can distort cost, efficiency, and strategy.

This week on Inside Reproductive Health, Griffin talks with Steve Rooks, co-author of a groundbreaking paper in JARG on activity-based costing in IVF, and Dr. Jason Barritt, Chief Scientific Officer at Kindbody, to unpack what’s really behind those numbers.

Together, they discuss:

– Why “an IVF cycle” isn’t a single service but a set of unique work orders

– How retrieval volume, ICSI, and PGT each reshape the cost per cycle

– The dramatic efficiency differences between labs performing 200 vs. 4,000 cycles per year

– The growing impact of managed care on margins

– How scalable systems like AURA from Conceivable Life Sciences could expand IVF access

“They expect us to be perfect.”

That’s how Dr. Jamie Grifo, Chief Executive Physician of the Inception/Prelude Network, describes the expectations placed on reproductive endocrinologists from patients, payors, and policymakers alike.

And while perfection may be impossible, preparation and partnership aren’t.

He discusses:

– Why NYU Langone has three in-house genetic counselors in their REI department

– How they counseled over 700 new patients last year

– What led to 300 PGT-M cycles out of 5,500 retrievals

– The challenges of sharing counselors across a growing network

– Regulatory complexities from state and federal oversight

– Why some REIs may be missing key opportunities to help patients with mosaic embryos

Embryologists have a lot riding on the line.

Bad supplies can cause big problems. Good supplies can create big improvements.

Either way, success rates and patients’ lives hang in the balance. Every detail in the IVF lab matters.  “Good enough” can cost more than it saves, because only the highest standards protect consistency, outcomes and trust..   

We’re joined this week by two of the most respected leaders in embryology. Dr. Michael Baker, Lab Director at Aspire HFI, and Dr. Robert Mendola, Lab Director at CCRM and member of the network’s Innovation Advisory Board.

Together, they break down:

– The full chain of quality assurance, from suppliers to networks to individual lab

– The burden and importance of retesting lab materials

– Why labs should evaluate not just blastocyst formation but cell counts per blast

– The tension between cost control, standardization, and lab autonomy

– The suppliers and products that stand out for exceptional quality (including Vitrolife’s media and oils)

– Why transparency and competition should set the standard for lab supply quality (instead of regulation)

How are clinicians doing?

Patients are expecting more, offering less gratitude, and leaving negative reviews faster than ever. Sound familiar?

Dr. Alice Domar, Chief Compassion Officer at Inception, talks about the emotional toll of working in reproductive medicine and what can be done about it.

Dr. Domar shares:

– Practical strategies for burnout prevention

– The one small intervention proven to improve patient retention

– Results from three psycho-social trials currently underway at Inception

– The patient traits most predictive of treatment dropout

– How Inception Fertility supports providers through empathic communication training

- What needs to change to better support front-line fertility professionals.

What will the IVF lab look like in five years?

Trying to predict and shape that response is Dr. Denny Sakkas, Chief Scientific Officer at Boston IVF and head of the scientific advisory board for AutoIVF.

In this episode of Inside Reproductive Health, Dr. Sakkas about what automation really means for embryologists, and how new technologies could transform lab operations, chain of custody, and patient safety.

Dr. Sakkas shares:

– The potential downsides to automation and where caution is needed

– How AutoIVF differs from AURA by Conceivable Life Sciences

–  His prediction about time-lapse imaging within five years

– The areas where embryologists must hold firm on lab standards

– The next big innovations he’s watching (and what Boston IVF plans to purchase next year)

Lab directors, how do you make sure your concerns actually reach ownership?

Vendors, how are you being vetted by the groups you serve?

This week on Inside Reproductive Health, Amy Jones, Chief Quality Officer of Ivy Fertility, talks about how one of the country’s leading networks evaluates quality, chooses partners, and plans for growth.

Amy shares:

– The specific criteria Ivy uses to vet vendors for cryostorage and digital witnessing

– How they’re implementing an AI solution to compare data across EMRs

– The patient concierge platform guiding patients through the IVF journey

– Where current patient education tools fall short

– The tradeoffs of proactive expansion

– And why fertility professionals get into trouble when they stay “too stuck in their own lane”

What’s the definition of a cartel, and has the way we pay for care created one in fertility?

This week on Inside Reproductive Health, two practice-owning REIs with very different models join Griffin to push that question hard. Dr. Robert Kiltz (CNY Fertility) and Dr. Francisco Arredondo (Pozitvf IVF & The IVF Academy) dig into the economics, the ethics, and the possible alternatives to the status quo.

They discuss:

• Dr. Arredondo’s argument that today’s IVF system resembles a cartel (and what can be done about it)

• The right question to ask about access and cost in IVF

• How insurance helped create today’s medical-industrial complex

• Dr. Kiltz’s meeting with HHS leadership and what it revealed

• Lessons from Aravind Eye Care in India (Could that model work for IVF?)

• What the IVF Academy is teaching clinicians about entrepreneurship and sustainable practice

  
  

This episode doesn’t offer easy answers. It’s a clear-eyed conversation about structural incentives, mission, and what it will take to make IVF more affordable and accessible.

If you’ve ever tried to get doctors, embryologists, and executives on the same page…you’ll want to hear this one.

In this episode of Inside Reproductive Health, Dr. Alison Bartolucci (CSO) and Cara Reymann (CEO) of First Fertility talk candidly about leadership, lab management, and network-wide decision-making.

They discuss:

– The emotional cost of leading a fertility network

– When to build consensus (and when to just drive the bus)

– The decision to implement digital witnessing across all nine IVF labs

– The “magic question” Cara uses to align stakeholders

– Why First Fertility abandoned plans for a single EMR

– Why Alison swears by using a lab monitoring service (and the business benefits beyond happy embryologists)

Overwhelm. Anxiety. Cases that stay with you.

That’s how some of the field’s most experienced professionals describe genetics in reproductive medicine today.

In this episode of Inside Reproductive Health, we brought together leaders from RMA, CCRM, Shady Grove, and GeneScreen to talk about the genetics overload in modern ART.

They talk with Griffin about:

• The liability landmine that genetics has become

• Why one lab’s “positive” is another lab’s “negative” (The Panel Paradox)

• Real cases where rare findings blindsided experienced REIs

• Smart strategies to stratify counseling (Without missing critical risks)

• The growing complexity of third-party reproduction

• The coming wave of whole genome sequencing and polygenic risk scores

This isn’t a high-level overview. It’s a blunt conversation about the real risks, broken workflows, and what’s coming next for your lab and patients.

Doctors used to dream not just of earning well, but of controlling how they practiced and how they cared for patients.

Doctors Cristin Slater, Kevin Maas, and Kyle Tobler—partners at the independently owned Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine—explain why that dream feels so far away for many.

Here’s what we cover:

• Why Dr. Maas says he’d never go back to a private equity-owned network

• Hidden legal clauses & earn-outs that can trap REIs

• The tug-of-war between business interests and clinical decisions

• How independent practices can innovate (including the tech they love)

• The advice they’d give to any fellow or young REI thinking about their future, and how they can still live the dream

Beth Zoneraich, CEO of Pinnacle Fertility, is back on Inside Reproductive Health to share the hard numbers and the deeper philosophy behind what she calls the Pinnacle Operational Model.

We deep dive into::

• Why they automate the back end of patient care (but never the front)

• How 3,000 unanswered phone calls became 500 new patients

• The “J curve” of operational change (where things get worse before they get better)

• Whether business leaders can help achieve work-life balance for clinical staff

• The build vs buy debate

  How they saved $1M saved by building (not buying) a witnessing system