Ok, this has nothing to do with halacha and IVF; however, I thought it would be useful.
IVF is expensive. Here are some money saving techniques that may help.
Different centers have different prices. While it’s important to not compromise quality, some cheaper and smaller places may work for you.
Some centers may have prices on a sliding scale or money back guaranties. Ask about them.
WinFertility and Attainfertility have deals with some centers.
Ask to submit your claims to insurance. You may have to do this after you prepay. Some insurances may cover monitoring or various parts of IVF. Since most insurance policies are incomprehensible, it’s impossible to know what’s covered and what’s not. You have nothing to lose by submitting the claim. Ask the center for the health insurance claim forms so you have the correct codes and that you know that you are submitting everything properly and honestly. The worse thing that can happen is that they will deny the claim. The best thing that can happen is that they will pay the claim. Insurance companies are not afraid to deny coverage if they do not cover the claim. If they do cover parts of IVF, you are better off.
If you are planning on doing many cycles (that’s life with complicated fertility problems), and your insurance does not cover IVF, check out the insurances on Obamacare. Sometimes, they may have IVF coverage. If you already have insurance through work, you will not get the subsidy. However, sometimes paying the premiums is cheaper than paying for multiple IVF cycles. If you want to keep your current insurance and also have Obamacare insurance, remember that you can only subscribe to one insurance. However, both you and your husband can subscribe to different insurances and both be covered under it. If you are the subscriber to your current health insurance, have your husband subscribe to the new insurance and have it cover both you and your husband. The new insurance will be your secondary insurance and will cover both you and your husband. If your husband has your current insurance through his work, you can subscribe to Obamacare and you do not have to include your husband (it’s cheaper to not include your husband, and he probably does not need treatment). Obamacare will be your primary health insurance and your old health insurance will be your secondary health insurance. Additionally, you are allowed to cancel coverage at any point and can cancel when you exhaust your fertility benefits. Please note that I do not work in the insurance industry. This is my understanding from many conversations with Obamacare navigators and insurance companies. I also confirmed that you can cancel for any reason (including exhausting benefits) with multiple insurance companies; however, you should ask the insurance company before you sign up. Honesty is always good. 😀
Paying for Medicines
Call every pharmacy on the list your clinic gives you. Ask what the prices are for each drug. Different pharmacies have different prices for different drugs. Ask the nurses for recommendations of cheap pharmacies. Some pharmacies have discounts based on the center.
When finding out prices, check the price for both gonal f and follistim and cetrotide and ganerilix. Sometimes one is cheaper than the other.
Ask your nurse about the various forms of progesterone and if you can take progesterone in oil. Progesterone in oil is much cheaper than Endometrin.
Compare prices on the various intermuscular trigger hcg shots. I think they have different prices.
Google fertility specialty pharmacies. Call every mail order pharmacy you can find. Different pharmacies have different prices for different drugs. Some drugs will be cheaper at one pharmacy and others will be cheaper at other pharmacies.
Call WinfertilityRx. They have cheaper drug prices, but you have to buy multiple drugs.
Google the drug and compassionate care. Some drugs/drug stores have compassionate care programs. You will have to submit a lot of personal information, such as tax returns, etc.
Some drugs have discount programs/coupons/rebates which are not income based. Google the drug and type in Rebate or coupon.
Buy less than what you need originally and then buy more medicines as you run out. You have to be very organized to do this, but you will not waste thousands of dollars in unused medicines. You must keep track of your medicines (especially going into weekends) and order from mail order pharmacies with overnight deliveries when you are about to run out. You may have some frantic scrambles for medicine, but you will not be left over with thousands of dollars of unused medicines. Remember, IVF nurses usually prescribe way more medicines than you will actually use.
Order the smallest units of medicines that you can (i.e. 300 units of follistim or Gonal F as opposed to 900 units). The price for 300 units is generally about a third of the 900 units, and you do not save money by buying the 900 unit vial as opposed to the 300 unit vial. You can use leftover unopened medicines in future cycles if they are stored properly. However, if you start a vial and don’t finish it, you cannot use it in a future cycle. If you order a 900 unit vial and only use 200 units, you cannot use the rest of the medicine in a future cycle and 700 units of the medicine will be wasted. However, if you order three 300 unit vials and only use 200 units, you have two vials (300 units each for a total of 600 units) that you can use in a future cycle.
Tzedaka and Maaser
I had to add some halacha to this page. 🙂 Ask a Rav if you can use maaser money for fertility treatments. It’s generally not accepted that you can, but some poskim allow it in certain circumstances.
