MORRISTOWN, N.J., May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As the country prepares to honor America's heroes this Memorial Day, local fertility clinic Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey (RMANJ) will launch a new program designed to help New Jersey-based active duty United States Military Services personnel and their spouses realize the dream of parenthood.

With its new initiative Helping Heroes Build Families, RMANJ fertility experts will provide one complimentary in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle to service members and their spouses between June 1 and December 31, 2012.

"Our military personnel and their families make extraordinary personal sacrifices to serve our country, and we feel honored to be able to give back to them in a meaningful way," said Richard T. Scott, Jr., MD, FACOG, HCLD, who completed his medical training and practiced in the Air Force before co-founding RMANJ.  "Harnessing RMANJ's expertise to help military personnel build families is important to our entire team, and it's especially poignant for me and for my colleague Dr. Kim, a former Navy reproductive endocrinologist."

Scott and Thomas J. Kim, MD, FACOG, were eager to bring Helping Heroes Build Families to New Jersey-based military personnel to help address some of the access challenges that service members confront when they need IVF. For example, the U.S. military provides fertility treatment, but services are available at only four locations around the country.  Personnel stationed in New Jersey may need to travel out-of-state to receive treatment covered by the military's Tricare health insurance system, or pay out-of-pocket for services provided by private clinics.

Patients enrolled in Helping Heroes Build Families will receive one cycle of free IVF treatment at any of RMANJ's six New Jersey locations. The cost of certain services normally direct billed to patients may apply. The clinic's experts will work closely with military medical professionals to ensure optimal continuity of care for patients.

To be eligible for Helping Heroes Build Families, patients must:

• Be active-duty United States Military Services personnel, and spouses, in the United States Army, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, the United States Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard.
• Serve on a U.S. military base or facility located in New Jersey.
• Have been properly screened and diagnosed in collaboration with military healthcare providers. 

For more information about eligibility and other program details, contact RMANJ at 973-871-1250 or visit http://www.rmanj.com/HelpingHeroes.

"We look forward to meeting local military heroes and their spouses, thanking them for their service and providing the support and expertise necessary to help make this a joyful process," said Kim.

Added Thomas A. Molinaro, MD, FACOG from RMANJ's Eatontown office, "A significant portion of New Jersey's military service members are in Monmouth County.  We look forward to welcoming these heroes to our Eatontown location."

Undergoing just one cycle of IVF can lead to a successful pregnancy. RMANJ has a 60.9 percent success rate of live births per cycle initiated in women under 35, compared to the national average of 41.7 percent, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.  RMANJ is also known as a pioneer in using cutting-edge technology to more accurately detect healthy embryos that lead to successful pregnancies and healthy babies.

About Scott and Kim
The two physicians leading Helping Heroes Build Families have strong ties to the military community.

Scott grew up in an Air Force family and attended medical school through the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship Program.  He completed his residency at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center at Lackland AFB, Texas, and later returned to a faculty position there where he started the first IVF program in the military in 1990. Next, Scott joined the team at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to run the multi-service Federal Reproductive Endocrine Fellowship and launch the IVF program there.  After many years in the military, Scott, along with Paul A. Bergh, MD, FACOG and Michael R. Drews, MD, FACOG, founded RMANJ in 1999.

Kim received his medical degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago. After finishing a general medicine internship at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, CA, and Undersea Medicine training in Groton, CT, he practiced naval operational medicine on board the submarine tender USS Dixon, taking care of seamen and divers.  He completed his residency at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, CA, and his fellowship training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.  Upon completion of fellowship training, he returned to the Naval Medical Center, San Diego and started a new IVF program for the military on the west coast and served as the IVF program director for 4 years. He is also a Gulf War veteran. He served in Desert Storm as a senior battalion surgeon in the frontline unit of the First Marines (1/5), Task Force Ripper, leading the ground campaign against the Iraqi army. He understands the sacrifices the servicemen and women make not only by fighting for our country but also being separated from their loved ones.  He remembers celebrating his first child's birthday on the Saudi desert while being apart from his family.

About Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey
Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey have pioneered and successfully implemented a cutting-edge technology, known as Comprehensive Chromosome Screening (CCS) to more accurately detect healthy embryos that will lead to successful pregnancies and ultimately healthy babies. Other centers have attempted similar testing methods, but RMANJ is the only fertility center in the world to have developed a system of unprecedented accuracy, fully validated through years of rigorous clinical research. RMANJ's Comprehensive Chromosome Screening offers advanced embryo selection with extreme accuracy by detecting and avoiding use of embryos with chromosomal abnormalities prior to transfer and pregnancy. 

The fertility experts at RMANJ have among the highest IVF success rates in the country. Since 1999, they have helped bring more than 20,000 babies to loving families.  In addition to serving as the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ, the practice has six locations in New Jersey. For more information please call RMANJ at 973-871-1250, or visit http://www.rmanj.com.

SOURCE Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey