Will your health insurance cover fertility treatments? The answer to this question depends upon your policy. Many insurance companies specifically exclude fertility treatments from coverage because treatments can become so expensive. Others provide limited coverage, such as covering a set number of intrauterine inseminations (IUIs) or in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts.

When I was going through fertility procedures in the late 1990's, my health insurance policy specifically excluded fertility treatments. However, my insurance company did wind up footing the bill for several diagnostic procedures. Apparently, some insurance companies view diagnostic testing for infertility as different from treatment.

My insurance company also covered parts of some treatment costs, even with this exclusion in place. For example, the insurance company would not pay the part of the bill applied to an IUI, but it would pay for the part of the bill charged for an office visit.

I worked with three different doctors' offices and three different insurance companies throughout my fertility treatments. I found that the office manager is the person you need to get to know. Because it is her job to submit insurance claims, she becomes the master at wording claims in a way that the insurance company will pay them. Let me be clear: She is not lying on the claims. She is merely writing the claims up in a way that provides the most coverage.

For example, if an insurance company fully covers fertility treatments, the doctor's office can safely send a flat bill for $500. If the insurance company covers office visits but not treatments, then the bill should be broken out into which fee covers which service.

Also, even when an insurance company does not cover infertility diagnostics or treatment, it might still cover some procedures if the condition is affecting other areas unrelated to fertility. For example, my current insurance specifically excludes fertility diagnostics and treatment. However, the insurance covered a laparoscopy that treated my endometriosis, which could have resulted in curing my infertility if I did not have other issues. My endometriosis had gotten bad enough to affect other areas of my health, so insurance covered the procedure not as a fertility treatment but as a treatment for the other health issues.

So, don't be afraid to ask your fertility doctor to submit a bill to your insurance company for fertility treatments. The worse that will happen is that the insurance company denies coverage.

Related Topics:

• Which Insurance Will Cover Infertility?
• Successful Challenges for Infertility Insurance Using ADA?

Photo credit: Rosanne Mooney