[BrandyHagz]

Is your state a "Mandate to Cover" or "Mandate to Offer" state?

[Jetta]

Originally Posted by BrandyHagz

Is your state a "Mandate to Cover" or "Mandate to Offer" state?

In Texas, those insurers that cover pregnancy benefits must offer coverage for IVF treatments. Employers must be informed of the availability of these policies, however, they do not have to include them in their employee benefits package. Companies with opposing religous beliefs can be exempt.

That sounds vague to me.

[dherbert]

I am in WV and it is a mandate to cover state but only for infertility diagnosis, not treatment. My DH works in MD which is a mandate to cover state but his employer has less than 50 employees so they did'nt have to cover IVF. MD is a great state with their mandates but there are a few loopholes for some employers.

[Charloto]

Originally Posted by Jetta

In Texas, those insurers that cover pregnancy benefits must offer coverage for IVF treatments. Employers must be informed of the availability of these policies, however, they do not have to include them in their employee benefits package. Companies with opposing religous beliefs can be exempt.

That sounds vague to me.

Yes, in Texas it must be offered but the employer does not have to purchase it.

We recently found this out with my husbands company. Called to see if we would be covered only to find out that they were offered it but declined to purchase it.
I was (still am) so furious about this. It just doesn't seem fair. I don't understand why they couldn't just offer it to each person individually. It's not right that the company gets to decide the fate of it's employers.

[amybeth]

Originally Posted by Charloto

Yes, in Texas it must be offered but the employer does not have to purchase it.

We recently found this out with my husbands company. Called to see if we would be covered only to find out that they were offered it but declined to purchase it.
I was (still am) so furious about this. It just doesn't seem fair. I don't understand why they couldn't just offer it to each person individually. It's not right that the company gets to decide the fate of it's employers.

I couldn't agree with you more. I'm in a similar situation here in Illinois. My company is based out of a different state where infertility coverage isn't required and they are also considered self-insured, so that's how they are getting around it. They chose not to cover infertility coverage at all, because it would have driven up premiums. They consider their compromise with this to be that they do cover diagnosis procedures and anything needed to correct whatever was diagnosed, however once you actually start a cycle for IUI or IVF, they are done with you and you are self-pay at that time. Unfortunately, our company never polled their employees to see if people would be willing to pay the higher premiums to have this coverage. Not that I would wish this on anyone, but all it would take I'm sure, is for whoever it is that makes the insurance decisions to be personally impacted by infertility and then I'm sure it would be a different story!

[tweetygirl]

What are the laws for NJ?

[ddeutch]

I live in Il but both my husband and I work in MO. We do not get any help with from the insurace company. If one of us worked in Il, then IL would pay for it.