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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Breaking the bank

I got a friendly letter from the RE on Saturday, stating that their price for the IUI with injectables is over $1500.00 and it must be paid at my first appointment.  This doesn't cover the price of the medications, which are looking like they will be about $750 per cycle.  I am insured through my husband's job, and they provide absolutely no coverage for any infertility treatment whatsoever.  They recently changed our prescription coverage, but they they don't cover injectable fertility medications of any kind.  We are fortunate that our state (NJ) mandates fertility coverage by law, but unfortunately my husband works in Pennsylvania and our plan is administered in PA.  So, we don't get that benefit either.  I know it's been said over and over again, but it is fundamentally unfair that many health insurance plans cover pregnancy, contraception, and erectile dysfunction but don't cover infertility treatment.  It's not our fault that we are infertile.  I didn't do anything to cause my infertility.  We are being punished for something that we have no control over.  It is so frustrating!  So, we are most likely going to have to clean out our savings (and possibly our retirement accounts if we end up doing IVF). 

On that note, if anyone knows which pharmacy is the cheapest for Folli.stim, Lu.pron, etc. please let me know.  I am using a NJ-based mom and pop pharmacy, but I don't know if their prices are cheapest.

5 comments:

  1. The emotional impact of IF is hard enough and when coupled with the financial impact-- ugh! We were lucky that we had insurance coverage through my dh's work...

    You might check out Adele's blog http://www.baby-on-mind.blogspot.com/
    I think she just did some pretty extensive research as to cost of meds at different pharmacies.

    Hugs!

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  2. The financial considerations related to IF are awful. I'm sorry.

    Your RE's price for IUIs with injectables sounds really high to me. We pay 50% of the costs related to our IUIs, and our half has never been more than $500. Also, I've used Clomid plus Follistim or Gonal-F for every cycle, along with hCG and progesterone gel, and the most my meds have ever cost was around $450.

    I get my Ovidrel from Freedom Pharmacy. A nurse at my RE's office referred me to them, and they are the cheapest I've found for that drug.

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  3. The IUI itself is only $350 - the ultrasounds and bloodwork are about $1200, so that's where the big costs are. My insurance paid for the bloodwork and ultrasounds during my last 3 IUI's, so I hope that they will continue to bill my insurance for that stuff. Thanks for the recommendation - I'll check out Freedom Pharmacy.

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  4. Wow -- that seems really high! Our IUI's were $500 each, totally self-pay. They did bill my insurance for bloodwork and monitoring though -- and it was covered, even though my ins. had NO fertility coverage. They just used a different code for billing purposes. Perhaps you could ask if they would do that in your case? Oh, and I also used Freedom Pharmacy. I've heard that there are cheaper online ones, but Freedom has excellent customer service and they can get my meds to me overnight if needed. I've always been very pleased with them.

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  5. That's about what I am paying, too, for the IUI with meds. I use Ascend pharmacy (mail order, free overnight shipping). I don't know how much the meds you need will cost, but my ganirelex was 97, menopur was 62 per vial, and hcg was 52.

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