10/18/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/18/2024 14:27
It's that time of year again - open enrollment for your employee benefits! As you review your benefits guides and tune into your company's webinars, you and your colleagues may hear about fertility and family building benefits.
According to a 2023 study, 40% of US employers now offer some sort of family building coverage, and research shows 64% of these companies have done so because an employee asked for it. Which leads us to an important point - your voice matters! When you ask, your benefits leaders listen.
Insurance plans and their coverage nuances can be tricky to fully understand, especially when trying to work out if, and how, fertility treatment is covered. Here are three key questions to ask your benefits team this open enrollment season to help you better understand any coverage gaps your fertility benefit may have and highlight the areas of improvement you can ask your benefits team to consider addressing.
It's important to know more about how your plan design could impact what's covered, and how it's covered, throughout your family building journey. Here are three question you can ask to better understand your plan design:
Best-in-class benefits will have robust, curated and credentialed networks of fertility specialists, including reproductive urologists for male infertility support. Some benefits may even support prioritized appointment scheduling with providers in your area. Understanding the provider access your benefit offers can provide some peace of mind during an often-stressful time.
When analyzing your family building benefits, ask about the number of clinics/providers you'll have access to within your network. You can also ask for more information about the standards used to include providers in the network. You'll want to make sure you have a choice of high-quality providers that are convenient to where you live and work, as a typical fertility journey will have as many as five to ten appointments during active treatment times.
The family building journey can be complex and stressful. In fact, a recent patient experience survey found that 65% of respondents found the payment and insurance authorization process of their coverage was complex and time consuming. That same survey also found that individuals found it difficult to understand what was covered, with 67% of respondents saying they spent more time than expected trying to understand their benefit.
Having support through even just some of the journey can make all the difference. Understanding the full scope of member support offered through your benefit can help you navigate available resources and get answers to the questions you have - from what paths to parenthood are covered, to helping you feel prepared at upcoming appointments, to answering questions around reimbursement.
While benefits are known to offer varying degrees of support throughout the journey, the best practice is for a benefit to provide dedicated, 1:1 support to patients/employees, coaching them through their initial options, ensuring they understand how their coverage works and can point them to the right resources through every phase of their journey, and into parenthood.
Use this open enrollment season as an opportunity to get to know your fertility and family building benefit. If your benefit isn't providing you the best access, coverage and support possible, your powerful questions could make a difference in getting the right benefit in place. And while benefits decisions can take time to be implemented, remember, 64% of companies who added or made updates to their fertility benefits, did so because an employee asked. Your voice matters!
Visit Progyny.com/TalkToHR for more resources on how to advocate for the right family building benefit for you and your colleagues. You can also sign up on the page for regular updates and additional resources to help you navigate the conversations ahead.