5 Questions Employers Should Ask About Fertility Benefits

Did you know about 68 percent of large employers offer some kind of reproductive assistance as part of their health insurance plans?  Have your employees started asking for coverage for fertility treatment?  Before they start lobbying you, investigate how you can offer a flexible plan that helps you provide the coverage they want while managing the costs.  These questions will help you get started. Why should we offer IVF benefits? You may have noticed that many tech companies are offering coverage for fertility treatment ranging from egg freezing to IVF.   According to the FertilityIQ Family Builder Workplace Index, tech companies lead all other industries in fertility benefits.  In a highly competitive field, fertility benefits are viewed as an important way to recruit and retain the most talented employees, both male and female.  Some of the top companies in consulting, banking and finance are also offering coverage. Reproductive assistance matters to employees because more of them are delaying starting a family during their most fertile years in order to build their careers or pursue higher education.  But many of these employees do want to have a family eventually.  Waiting until age 35 or after to try to have a child increases the chance of infertility.  About one-third of women at age 35 will suffer problems with fertility.  By age 43 a woman’s chance of getting pregnant naturally is only one or two percent.  Offering coverage for fertility treatment helps your employees keep their options open and increases their loyalty to your company. Why is infertility such a challenge in the workplace? Infertility is emotionally and financially draining for employees.  The emotional stress of fertility treatment is exacerbated by worrying about how to pay for treatment. Employees who are stressed both emotionally and financially usually are exhausted and less productive on the job.  Paying out of pocket for fertility treatment can lead employees to pursue options such as transferring higher numbers of embryos in IVF to try to increase their odds of getting pregnant in any given cycle.  This greatly increases the chance of multiple births, which may lead to increased medical costs for the employer in the long term.  The high costs of high-risk maternity care, multiple births, premature births and NICU care are borne by the employer’s insurance plan. What are the main benefits of managed fertility care? Managed fertility care helps both the employer and the employees.  With a managed fertility benefit plan, employees have access to a network of board-certified reproductive endocrinologists who diagnose and treat infertility.  Nurses are available to guide patients in how to take fertility medications and help them make the best treatment choices.  For employers, managed fertility care offers an integrated medical, genetic testing and pharmaceutical model which provides documented, improved clinical results and cost savings. How can managed fertility benefits save employers money? Managed coverage helps patients make sound decisions based on the best evidence-based treatment recommendations for their diagnosis.  Our proprietary systems have been shown to reduce direct treatment costs, lower the rate of high-order multiple pregnancies and related NICU treatment, and promote treatment options that yield better results.  The ultimate results are reduced costs for employers while employees are able to pursue the family they want with a high degree of success.  Employers can select from an employer-paid or voluntary program and have the flexibility to customize a plan for their needs.