Justine Haring and Jenna Pellicori-Curry , employees of Nemours Children's Health, in Deptford, N.J., were involved in spearheading the effort to get fertility benefits added to their workplace health benefits.Jenna Pellicori-Curry spent around $40,000 out-of-pocket on medical treatments to conceive her first child, who is now 3 years old.
“We work with children too, so it’s in our face every day and it’s so hard and it’s something that you want so badly,” Haring said. “And then you have this huge financial burden if you don’t have the coverage” through an employer’s health insurance offering. But only 41 of the 100 expressly cover in vitro fertilization or IVF — a series of procedures in which mature eggs are collected and fertilized by sperm in a lab, then inserted into the uterus to implant and develop.according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesIn 2021, more than 3,100 babies in Pennsylvania were conceived using assisted reproductive technologies, accounting for 2.4% of infants conceived in the state.
Nemours ultimately invested in fertility coverage because of associate feedback, said Lisa Meddock, a member of Nemour’s benefits team. About 50% of the company’s workforce was at a stage where family-forming was top-of-mind, she said.