Financing Fertility
As if infertility isn't emotionally taxing, it is financially taxing as well. We have zero coverage for procedures involving fertility treatment. I about had a heart attack when I saw the cost estimate sheet. How much? For one cycle of monitoring and an IUI, $2845. And how much money do we have? None. Okay, maybe a couple jars of pennies hidden around the house. I think I mentioned before that I used to be all relaxed about this. If it worked out, great. If not, I can never look back at the "what if we only tried" and we could move on to adoption. Either way, we win. However, now I am feeling anxious, what with the financial investment and no guarantee of return.
On top of that, the $2845 doesn't even include all the medications required. At least we have something going for us. Our prescription coverage includes coverage on injectable medications for fertility. I called a couple months ago and was told this, but no one could tell me what that really means. Do I get $5 off the total price, or do I only have to pay $5 for each medication?
I talked with the financial office at my RE just to make sure that there really was no coverage on fertility monitoring and procedures. There's not. The lady referred me to a company called ARC. The company works with several Fertility Clinics and their prices are less than what we would pay to the RE ourselves. We pay ARC, and ARC pays my RE. We can choose a package of 1-3 cycles. If we get pregnant the first try, we lose the rest of the package. Their goal is a live birth, so if we miscarry and we still have cycles left in our package, we can use those. We ended up deciding to purchase 3 cycles, for $5118. Who knows how long that will last. If I ovulate from the wrong side, the cycle will be canceled and we will just pay out of pocket for that cycle instead of using our ARC package. Confusing? Probably. It only took me 3 phone calls and a ton of questions to ARC to get it all figured out, and I am not typing it all up here.
My medications are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I got the call this morning to find out at last how much it is going to cost for the meds. The total comes to $125 for my Gonal-F, HSG trigger shot, and progesterone. I was told that my prescription coverage is covering over $3000 of the medications. So glad we have something going to us!
On top of that, the $2845 doesn't even include all the medications required. At least we have something going for us. Our prescription coverage includes coverage on injectable medications for fertility. I called a couple months ago and was told this, but no one could tell me what that really means. Do I get $5 off the total price, or do I only have to pay $5 for each medication?
I talked with the financial office at my RE just to make sure that there really was no coverage on fertility monitoring and procedures. There's not. The lady referred me to a company called ARC. The company works with several Fertility Clinics and their prices are less than what we would pay to the RE ourselves. We pay ARC, and ARC pays my RE. We can choose a package of 1-3 cycles. If we get pregnant the first try, we lose the rest of the package. Their goal is a live birth, so if we miscarry and we still have cycles left in our package, we can use those. We ended up deciding to purchase 3 cycles, for $5118. Who knows how long that will last. If I ovulate from the wrong side, the cycle will be canceled and we will just pay out of pocket for that cycle instead of using our ARC package. Confusing? Probably. It only took me 3 phone calls and a ton of questions to ARC to get it all figured out, and I am not typing it all up here.
My medications are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I got the call this morning to find out at last how much it is going to cost for the meds. The total comes to $125 for my Gonal-F, HSG trigger shot, and progesterone. I was told that my prescription coverage is covering over $3000 of the medications. So glad we have something going to us!
Labels: ARC, fertility treatment, financing fertility, gonal-f, infertility
posted by AM | 5:41 AM
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