State alleges Colorado Springs fertility clinic nurse practitioner not properly licensed; clinic disagrees

UPDATE, 11/20/2024: In August of 2024, the state repealed the cease and desist letter sent to Brandis Montez, allowing her to return to work as a licensed nurse practitioner. You can see our reporting on this update by clicking here.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A nurse practitioner at a Colorado Springs fertility clinic has been ordered a cease and desist, to stop performing procedures immediately. The State alleges that nurse is not licensed enough to carry out the over 700 procedures she's been a part of, but her employer argues otherwise.

The nurse practitioner in question, Brandis Montez, works at CNY Fertility in Colorado Springs. The business is popular for its drastically lower prices, compared to the industry standard, advertising themselves as an affordable alternative for couples looking to start a family. They've amassed over 100,000 followers across their Tik-Tok and Instagram pages over the years, drawing in patients from nearby and over state lines.

Those who have gone through the process of searching for fertility clinics, tell KRDO13 that the bill can be as high as $20,000, or at least in the five-digit range. CNY Fertility however, offers three plans for prospective patients, in the $5,000-plus to $6,000-plus range.

The State's Nursing Board writes in the cease and desist order that Montez is not properly licensed to have a hand in the fertility treatments and/or procedures.

Per the document, the Board claims: "[Montez's] Adult Gerontology Acute Care and Family population foci do not correspond to performing gynecological procedures and otherwise providing care within the Women’s Health population focus."

The documents obtained by KRDO13 Investigates specifically explain, in part, how Montez worked outside her scope of training, by:

• Assist[ing] physicians with gynecological procedures, has performed fertility procedures and treatments, and has provided fertility medications to patients;
• Perform[ing] over one hundred (100) physician-supervised embryo transfers, and has performed approximately six hundred fifty (650) non-supervised embryo transfers;
• Perform[ing] ovum/egg retrievals on patients for in vitro fertilization (“IVF”) procedures, ovarian platelet-rich plasma (“PRP”) therapies, diagnostic hysteroscopies, and non-supervised in-office operative procedures.

KRDO13 Investigates attempted to reach out to CNY Fertility by phone and email throughout Wednesday morning and early afternoon to ask about the allegations against Montez, but was unsuccessful.

If you were a patient with CNY Fertility, and/or worked with Brandis Montez in the last several years, and have questions about the situation, you can email 13Investigates@krdo.com.

KRDO13 Investigates then drove to the clinic in person, shortly before the business closed at 3 p.m on Wednesday, however the doors were locked several minutes early.

Our crew waited in the parking lot for employees to come outside for upwards of two hours, but there were none, despite many cars remaining in the parking lot.

KRDO13 Investigates then called and got in touch with one of the clinics doctors, who asserted that a statement addressing the situation would be released soon, and said that no one was at the clinic at the time.

Despite that, roughly 90 minutes later, KRDO13 Investigates was told we were trespassing and needed to leave the property. Crew members left the parking lot immediately, and then moments later, several employees of the clinic filed out quickly to their cars, before leaving in a flurry.

KRDO13 Investigates received this statement from a firm representing CNY Fertility and Montez which stated:

"All CNY nurse practitioners are fully licensed by the appropriate state nursing board and also receive intensive hands-on professional training.  Ms. Montez is duly licensed by the State of Colorado as a Nurse Practitioner with Advanced Practice Prescriptive Authority.  She is double-board certified as both a family and adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner. At all times, her duties at CNY were within the scope of her licensures. We are vigorously contesting the allegations in the State of Colorado’s letter."

Spokesperson on behalf of CNY Fertility and Brandis Montez

KRDO13's Medical Expert Dr. Neha Sharma explained Wednesday that the title of, "A family and adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner", as explained in the statement, does not exactly enable someone to assist in fertility treatments, only with some minor exceptions.

"So gerontology is usually older age, so geriatric patients. So it's very different than women's health,  especially when you're talking about fertility in pregnancy. [A] family nurse practitioner, it can include a little bit of that, but only with proper training and certifications." said Dr. Sharma.

Meanwhile, a woman named Felicia, who declined to provide her last name, spoke with KRDO13 Investigates about her experience as a patient in 2022 with CNY Fertility, traveling all the way from Kansas City with her husband for their affordable treatment plans.

"[It] leaves me with a lot of questions like, would things have been different for my husband and I? Like, would we have had a baby?" she wondered, after hearing the news that Montez, who was present for a handful of procedures in the clinic with her, was being questioned by the State.

"You know, I kind of initially was like, Oh, well, you're not Dr. Fink that I saw last time, But, you know, you work here, you're a nurse practitioner. Like, I'm sure that you know what you're doing." explained Felicia about an instance where Montez was assigned to meet with her for an appointment instead of a Doctor she saw previously.

"She seemed very friendly, warm and inviting." Felicia added.

Felicia also explained, in corroboration with the claims made by the Cease and Desist letter, that Montez did have some non-supervised appointments with her.

"There was like the ultrasound tech and then there was Brandis, there was no other doctors or nurses in the room with us." said Felicia.

KRDO13 Investigates was unable to reach Montez over the phone on Wednesday to answer our questions. Her social media profiles on Instagram and Tik-Tok, which were visible on Tuesday, and had been tagged in posts by the CNY Fertility social media pages, appeared to be taken down, or gone by Wednesday morning.

Felicia says while she was alarmed by the news, she doesn't blame the entire facility and staff, but she does hope that things get straightened out so future would-be mothers like herself, can know the truth about who is performing their procedures. 

"The more I think about it, the angrier I become thinking about it and wondering, you know, like, would things have been different for us, if we had somebody who was authorized and knew what they were doing." she said.