Using Health Insurance to Pay for Fertility Treatment

Infertility treatment is expensive. How can an average person afford to pay? Health insurance can be used to pay for some parts of treatment, and clinic affordability programs, such as shared cycles and multi-cylce plans, can bring down the cost of fertility treatment.

Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility & adoption education and support nonprofit, interviews Davina Fankhauser, Co-founder and President of Fertility Within Reach, and an expert on policy related to benefits for fertility treatment and preservation.

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Hit the Highlights

How can you tell if your insurance will cover any or all of fertility treatment? Where would you look in your health insurance policy?
Many people don’t have a full and complete copy of their actual insurance plan. How do they get one?
How has the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) impacted insurance coverage?
What is the typical type of fertility treatment coverage?
If you have coverage for IVF, how many cycles are covered? What are some of the restrictions?
Are IVF medications usually covered? How to tell if your policy covers medications?
Can you specifically buy health insurance with this coverage once you think you might be having trouble getting pregnant?
Do most insurance policies require pre-authorization before fertility treatment begins?
Most of the time coverage for infertility will be limited even if covered, so how do patients make the most of this coverage—make it go the furthest?
If your health insurance does not cover infertility, is there any way to get part of your treatment costs covered?
Differences in insurance coverage for diagnosing and treating.
Does it make sense to have your initial testing done with your gynecologist rather than your infertility clinic?
Does how the doctor code the test or procedure matter in getting coverage?
What is a predetermination of benefits, and how can it help you get coverage?
What do you do if your infertility claim is denied by your insurance company?
An option people don’t always think about ia advocating with their employer to include infertility treatment coverage in their health insurance packages.
We’ve talked about calling your insurance company: how do you document these conversations?