Insurance IVF Coverage

[Anonymous]

12:33 here again.

Thx for the advice on the 2yr waiting period!

Here is a bizarre thing I found out today - My United health plan covers IVF, but it does NOT cover IUI. It covers the meds, but not the procedure. WTH??? They would rather pay $10K for IVF (and shell out for a whole lot MORE meds and monitoring) than $1500 for an IUI procedure (even though they're paying for the meds that go along with it)? I know IUI has lower pg rates, so United could end up paying for IUI AND IVF for a lot of women, but still, there's got to be some other way to reflect that in the plan benefits. Is this normal for infertility coverage?? It seems totally insane to me.

[Anonymous]

OP, I believe United HC (at least the plan offered to feds in MD) no longer covers IVF. You can see this in the plan brochure on the OPM website, and specifically on the page about changes for 2009: "Infertility services - Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) procedures such as IVF, GIFT, ZIFT, and embryo transfer are no
longer covered benefits. See page 26 and 74." It's too bad as they covered the most of any fed plan before.

[Anonymous]

Thx for the advice on the 2yr waiting period!

Here is a bizarre thing I found out today - My United health plan covers IVF, but it does NOT cover IUI. It covers the meds, but not the procedure. WTH??? They would rather pay $10K for IVF (and shell out for a whole lot MORE meds and monitoring) than $1500 for an IUI procedure (even though they're paying for the meds that go along with it)? I know IUI has lower pg rates, so United could end up paying for IUI AND IVF for a lot of women, but still, there's got to be some other way to reflect that in the plan benefits. Is this normal for infertility coverage?? It seems totally insane to me.

IUIs are much more likely to result in higher order multiples. Having to pay for triplets or beyond is an insurance company's worst nightmare.
Plus, I think UHC will only allow you to transfer a max of 2 embryos during an IVF cycle which even decreases the odds of twins.
IVF is a much more highly controlled process than IUI.
I don't think paying out 10K per IVF cycle is really a huge deal for insurance companies. Paying one million plus for a set of premature multiples certainly is.