Biglaw firms with fertility benefits? Forum

[nixy]

Ok, so I have a friend who did this. Anon so you can't figure out which friend.

Go sign up to work at Amazon as a delivery driver. Go through the HR process. Get the best health insurance that has fertility benefits. Go work 1 or 2 days until the insurance kicks in. I think my friend made like 12 deliveries.

As soon as the health insurance kicks in, quit. Then, go about your life. Sign up for Cobra to continue your coverage with fertility benefits once that paperwork comes in.

Leaving aside the obvious issues with this, isn’t COBRA coverage much more expensive? You have access to the same benefits, but you have to pay a lot more for them.

For normal health coverage, COBRA is insanely expensive versus potential benefit. But, COBRA monthly payments are nowhere near the cost of IVF out of pocket.

Ah, fair. I’ve never had to look into it.

[Anonymous User]

The person who posted asking for coverage maximums had the right idea. My firm, which I am not going to name, recently changed medical insurance carriers to one that has implemented a low lifetime maximum for fertility benefits, so low that a single round of IVF for myself and my partner hit the limit. I'm sure they would advertise that they cover fertility benefits, but the devil is in the details.

[Anonymous User]

Agree devil is in the details here, for sure. And unfortunately it can be impossible to know what a firm offers until you're in.

Progeny-type coverage is probably the best for you because folks here can straight-up confirm whether or not it exists. Health insurance benefits are far trickier/messier/grosser.

My firm offers a HDHP with fertility benefits. Luckily the lifetime benefit isn't terribly low, but if you let the medications eat it up, you could hit it with one round. The other thing to be careful of is size of deductible, but also fine print about who qualifies for the coverage. Same sex couples can get absolutely screwed with definitions like "must have failed to conceive through six rounds of IUI within a year." That's close to 10k worth of IUI, and some health insurance companies will start your six count over again if you conceive but miscarry.

I don't think most firms care or even understand what fertility benefits they offer. I'm impressed with the firms that have thought this through. Mine isn't really one of them, but I think that's more through ignorance than anything.

[Anonymous User]

STB transitioned to Progyny this year and covers 4 smart cycles. It’s better than the prior coverage under a HDHP, which covered three “rounds” of IVF. As others have mentioned, the details are really important. I didn’t know that a frozen egg transfer counted as a “cycle” until it was already done. I ended up paying out of pocket for another transfer and saving the last cycle of coverage in case I needed another egg retrieval and fertilization, which is far more expensive. Wherever you end up, definitely read the policy and exclusions carefully - I got bad information from the insurance rep when I called with questions. Some policies also will not cover a subsequent retrieval until all frozen embryos have been transferred, so essentially they will not pay for banking.

[Anonymous User]

Yes - definitely worth checking the details of the particular plan if you are firm-shopping and using this as a criteria. As others have mentioned, for example, some insurance will make you try IUI first, which often doesn't work and ends up just eating into valuable time. A plan that would NOT require IUI first and let you skip straight to IVF if that's what the doctor recommended would, in my experience, be significantly better.

[Anonymous User]

Definitely look into the details like out of pocket max, age limits, and period of infertility required before coverages kicks in. Some firms will eventually cover IVF but it takes 6 months to a year or multiple tries of IVF first. Latham has no lifetime max, covers your on infertility benefits until you’re 44, and has no infertility period, so you can take advantage of the three rounds of IVF or the elective egg freezing without needing any specific diagnosis or issue conceiving. It is a game changer. By far the best coverage of any big law firm I’ve heard of.