Frequently Asked Questions
Please complete this request form or call 484-897-7113 to schedule an appointment. Please let us know if you’re interested in scheduling a surgical consult, annual wellness exam, or an evaluation for other gynecologic condition.
For patients with fibroids, or stage IV endometriosis and/or bowel, bladder, or diaphragm endometriosis, we request imaging and/or surgical records for a free review by Dr. Tang before scheduling a surgical consult, as patients who will need more complex in-hospital surgical care will be referred to specialists at the local academic medical system. If this is the case, Dr. Tang can help to facilitate this referral so that you get the care you need as soon as possible.
For other patients with prior endometriosis surgery, we will request operative and pathology reports from your surgeries so that we can better understand the extent of disease.
If you have recent imaging (ultrasound, MRI) or lab testing (hormone levels, routine bloodwork for heavy or irregular periods), we will also request these reports so that Dr. Tang can have them available before your appointment. If you have a CD of images of your pelvic ultrasound or MRI, please bring it with you to your appointment.
Making sure that we have any relevant records before your appointment will ensure that your time with Dr. Tang is as helpful and detailed as possible. If you aren’t able to get records before your appointment, we will still happily see you, but you may need to return for additional visits – or we may need to repeat imaging studies such as pelvic ultrasounds.
Part of the benefit of a small, independent practice like Thrive is that we can often get patients in for care quickly! Most office appointments can be scheduled within 2 weeks, and most surgeries within 1-2 months, depending on the complexity of the surgery, the time of year, and your own schedule.
Thrive Gynecology and Dr. Tang are out of network with insurance plans, meaning that we are not contracted with insurances, and we do not submit directly to them for payment. We accept payment from patients at the time of service, and at the time that a surgery is scheduled.
However, most PPO insurance plans provide out of network coverage, which means that you may be able to be reimbursed for some of the costs of seeing an out of network provider! We will provide a superbill, which is a receipt with medical codes. If you wish, we can then submit the superbill to the insurance company on your behalf so that you can be reimbursed by your plan. You can use the Reimbursify tool on this page to look up your basic out of network benefits by clicking the blue “Use your insurance” button.”
We accept traditional credit cards, HSA (health savings account) or FSA (flex spending account) cards, or CareCredit (a credit card that can be used for medical, dental, veterinary expenses, and allows for interest-free payment plans up 6 months.
Many of the frustrations that many patients have experienced with OB/Gyn care are due at least in part to the medical insurance system, which offers such poor reimbursement for women’s health that doctors must see large numbers of patients per day, leading to long wait times and short appointments. Gynecologists who are in-network with insurance plans are in a constant battle to get their patients the care they need: spending hours on the phone to obtain approvals for necessary procedures and surgeries, disputing denials, and sometimes having entire surgeries unpaid by insurance plans after they were approved and performed, with no recourse. In-network practices must also employ staff whose role is simply to spend hours on the phone with insurances to obtain authorizations and fight claim denials.
This is particularly the case for complex gynecologic surgery, especially endometriosis surgery – where insurance companies will reimburse a 4 hour surgery with extensive and careful excision of endometriosis, lysis of adhesions, removal of ovarian cysts and preservation of fertility, the same as an ablation where the surgeon simply cauterizes one spot. Insurance companies also value complex gynecologic surgery at a fraction (sometimes an order of magnitude) that of procedures in other surgical fields such as orthopedic surgery or urology, even if they take significantly less time. Also, since many patients have high deductible plans, they are often already paying out of pocket for much of their care, even if they have insurance.
These are the reasons that virtually all private practice minimally invasive gynecologic surgeons with a specialty in endometriosis are out of network with insurances. The fact that this is not the case with other surgical specialties is a reflection of how women’s health is viewed and valued by the insurance system. Dr. Tang does want to ensure that as many patients as possible can be seen, so please speak with our office specialists to discuss pricing and payment plans with CareCredit.
You can quickly check your out of network benefits using the simple Reimbursify tool below, by simply clicking on the blue “Use Your Insurance” button. However, please also call your insurance carrier before your appointment for more specific plan details. We regret that we do not have enough staff to call and check your benefits for you, and we do not guarantee that your insurance will pay for out of network services. However, after your appointment, we are happy to submit the superbill to your insurance on your behalf through the Reimbursify platform, and any reimbursement payments would be sent directly to you from your insurance company.
At Thrive Gynecology, we strive to be transparent about costs. Office appointments are priced to allow us to spend at least 45 minutes with new patients so that your evaluation can be thorough, and you will have plenty of time to ask questions.
Office Appointments
New annual Gynecologic exam | $350 |
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New surgical consult or problem visit | $500 |
Follow-up visits (up to 30 minutes) | $250 |
Follow-up visits 30-60 minutes | $500 |
Office Procedures
IUD insertion (IUD devices will either be obtained from a specialty pharmacy through your insurance, or if paying out of pocket, we can obtain the device for you close to cost for $800) |
$250 |
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Colposcopy | $300 |
Nitrous oxide for in-office procedures | $100 |
Pelvic ultrasound | $300 |
Surgeries
Hysteroscopy | $1200-2000 |
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Tubal sterilization – laparoscopic bilateral salpingectomy (If performed at the time of another surgery such as excision of endometriosis, $1000 in addition to the quoted price of the primary surgery) |
$2000 |
Labiaplasty | $4000 |
Laparoscopic excision of endometriosis and/or ovarian cystectomy (Pricing depends on extent of disease and time required for surgery) |
$5000-8000 |
Laparoscopic myomectomy (removal of fibroids) (Pricing depends on number and size of fibroids and time required for surgery) |
$5000-8000 |
Acessa procedure – laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation of fibroids (Pricing depends on number and size of fibroids and time required for surgery) |
$5000-8000 |
Laparoscopic hysterectomy (Pricing depends on size of uterus, time required for surgery, and whether endometriosis is also excised) | $5000-10000 |
Cystoscopy at time of laparoscopy | $500 |
Chromotubation at time of laparoscopy (dye test to check tubes) | $500 |
We accept all major credit cards, Zelle, and HSA / FSA cards. We request payment for office visits at the time of service, and payment for surgical fees at least 2 weeks prior to surgery in order to hold your spot on the surgical schedule.
For patients who wish to pay via payment plan for surgical fees, we accept CareCredit, which is a credit card for medical costs that allows for payment in installments over 6 months. Patients paying in full for surgery without using CareCredit will receive a 5% discount.
You can still use insurance for lab tests like Pap smears, biopsies, urine samples, and we can send labs to your preferred in-network lab such as Labcorp, Quest, or Main Line Health pathology. We do not have a phlebotomist for blood draws, but will give you a lab slip for bloodwork that you can take to your in-network lab.
We offer in-office pelvic ultrasounds in the office for your convenience at a cost of $200, or we can provide a prescription for pelvic ultrasound or MRI that you can take to your in-network radiology department. If you get imaging studies elsewhere, we ask that you request a final report be sent to our office, or better yet, please bring a hard copy of the report with you to your follow-up appointment. Faxed reports sometimes do not get sent to our office, so we want to ensure that Dr. Tang is able to discuss your results with you in a timely fashion.