When you start IVF, everything happens very quick from a financial aspect. As soon as you agree on the manner in which you are proceeding, you are asked to pay for the IVF clinic's "service" up front before you even start taking meds or do a baseline blood work and ultrasound. You are asked to pay this before you do your "prep month" with estrogen patches and cetrotide or ganirelix to prepare the ovaries for stimulation and egg retrieval.
If you do not have fertility coverage through your health insurance plan, you better get your credit card limit increased beforehand because the medications cost pretty similar to the price of a used vehicle. Not only is the cost to have IVF performed financially burdening, but the medication is not much cheaper. As soon as the meds are ordered and a delivery date is chosen, payment to the pharmacy is expected prior to shipment. Before one IVF cycle starts, I would suggest having at least 25k in financing available to cover the service fee and medication, as well as all the additional stuff like local monitoring appointments (assuming your going to a doctor that isn't local - otherwise that will be part of the IVF "service" fee), blood work and embryo lab fees, and of course the unexpected outpatient procedures that you may find yourself in if you are like me. They say IVF meds are typically 3-5k but mine just happened to be 6k so you never know. As if the process of starting an IVF cycle with injectable medications isn't enough stress, welcome to the stress of the financial side of it without coverage!
My husband and I are fortunate to both have good jobs, and yet its still not enough. We have depleted our savings or the ability to go on a vacation as a result of one fresh IVF retrieval, 2 scar tissue removal surgeries, 2 cancelled Frozen transfers (that I still went through with injections and monitoring), and 1 failed frozen transfer this past year. I have read about people who have done even more fresh IVF cycles and transfers than myself, and I am baffled how they could possibly have afforded to do that! Being able to get pregnant and getting the opportunity to do so should not depend on your bank account. Isn't that why insurance is there to begin with, to assist for unforeseen issues when some part of your body isn't functioning as it was meant to?
https://www.todaysparent.com/getting-pregnant/infertility/ivf-should-be-a-right-and-not-a-privilege/
There are also some cases where people can get financial discounts based on their household income, your nurse or financial counselor should be able to give you more details on that part, so if they don't mention it up front please ask them. Your clinic may have a preferred bank or loan company that they do financial aid through as well. Here are some links I've found for finding grants, scholarships, and financing options, but I have no experience with using them.
https://resolve.org/what-are-my-options/making-infertility-affordable/infertility-treatment-grants-scholarships/
http://www.winfertility.com/top-five-methods-financing-ivf/
Please note that if you are going to Shady Grove they are not part of the WIN fertility clinic so you cannot participate in their discount program options unless you are with another clinic.
The latest financial debacle preparing to start round 2 IVF:
So today is another example of how the financial aspect of this process can be stressful. We are trying to start our second IVF retrieval, and on top of my monthly period not starting as it should have as I approached 57 days in my last cycle (aka everything has been on hold and we cannot plan anything for the next two months because of doctors visits and occasional trips to the clinic out of state, which are very unpredictable), we randomly received another bill saying that we owed money for the frozen embryo transfer that failed the week of Christmas. **Add salt to my open wound**
The part of this that got me instantly mad is that we already paid for this as part of the "all inclusive" fee when we starting IVF retrieval #1. Why do I have to feel like I need to monitor every single thing we go through medically? When I called the financial counselor about the charge, she told me to call the number on the bill. I call the number on the bill and they tell me to talk to my financial counselor. As if I don't have a job to do and am just waiting to make all these damn phone calls! So I talk to my financial contact again and she tells me we actually still have a balance from doing a mock transfer, HSG, and hysteroscopy surgery from March 2017 (I am told this in February 2018) and of course that money needs to be paid up front in addition to my IVF #2 charges or my IVF #2 will need to be delayed for payment. Usually the clinics will bill you within a month of your treatment, so this was odd to me, but its so hard to keep track when you receive several medical bills a week. Later on I come to find that the billing department of my IVF clinic decided to dig into the up front "all inclusive" fee we paid to cover the IVF #1 retrieval and transfer without telling my financial counselor, or sending me a bill.
Fast forward a few days longer, my period was so late that they want me to schedule an ultrasound and blood work at my local monitoring office. When I call to do this, the office literally harasses me about owing them money too. "I can't schedule you anything until you pay your bill." But I just got it in the mail 3 weeks ago, and its $43 dollars....are you serious? Meanwhile, I have just taken over the finances in our family because my husband is busy with school, and I just put this bill in the mail this morning. Finally I convince her its in the mail, I get the shitty appointment for what feels like the 100th bloodwork and monitoring appointment scheduled, and I am instantly upset with tears streaming down my face trying to maintain myself at my job and focus on that too. It never ends!! Its just all so damn stressful. I'm maybe sounding like a total whiner at this point, but its true. Stress is so high during this process.
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