Okay, so maybe that wasn't the most 'appropo' title to this post, but seriously. Every month for the past 12 years or so I have paid for health insurance. I barely ever get sick (knock on wood) and still I pay for it 'just in case'. So much to my surprise when I called in Sept. '06 to check how I would get a referral to an RE when they said, "sorry, your insurance doesn't cover infertility". Well la-ti-dah! FJ and I decided to go with the attitude of, "money is money" and we are prepared to take out a loan if need be. A few months back when we went to our consultation with our RE (keep in mind we already knew that we would pay for this out of pocket), the receptionist said to just pay the copay. Well later we found out that the nimrod who I spoke to initially should have told me that insurance would've paid for a consultation but no testing or meds or interventions. Blegh- it would've been paid for and we had to eat the cost. So I made sure when I spoke to the insurance company this time around that I didn't need a referral to continue treatment (I told her that I would be getting montly ultrasounds to check on development of follies and blah blah blah)- her response was, "no because ultrasounds would be covered because they are considered second opinion but nothing else". Well, fast forward to today when I check my mail and there is a FAT bill for my recent ultrasound in it! The insurance didn't cover it! I am so pissed! Okay, enough ranting... I just think it is a crime that my insurance won't cover anything. Does anyone out there know what it took for those precious and few states to require mandatory infertility coverage? I would love to start a movement here in VA to see it happen.
On another note, I am so excited to see that I have 4 comments on my first post!!! I am already feeling the support of this blog-o-sphere. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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4 comments:
WTF totally is right. I would love to see VA have coverage as well.
I am sorry you are encountering so many insurance issues! It is difficult to get a straight answer and it sometimes depends on how things are coded by your doc's office.
As for how other states got it, from what I've read, the founders of Resolve lived in the upper northeast and lobbied hard in their own areas for coverage. Since most coverage is regulated by the state, it needs to be done separately in each one.
I have a new blog too and got my first comments today thanks to Mel.
Oh, and one tip I recently picked up from the blogosphere was to call fertility Lifelines for help sorting out your coverage and keep really good notes on who tells you what. Your denial may not be as firm as it now appears.
Good luck!
Welcome to the supportive world of BlodLand. We're glad to have you!
When I first checked into our insurance coverage for IF I just accepted that it wasn't covered. I thought oh well! Now that I know a little more about IF I'm mad. It's a disease why shouldn't it be covered? It sucks!
Omgosh...I am sorry. Insurance sucks! My insurance doesn't cover anything coded infertility either.
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