When Gina Bartasi started to plan for a family at the age of 38, when women’s fertility health often has started to decline, she didn’t expect it to be easy. But the process was even more complicated and challenging than she expected.
Her experience — spending over $100,000 and navigating the healthcare system without expert support — made it clear that women and families shouldn’t have to walk the
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Currently, just 28% of employers offer coverage for in-vitro fertilization services and only 29% offer coverage for other non-in-vitro related fertility needs, according to research from the Society for Human Resource Management.
Bartasi recently connected with Employee Benefit News to discuss Kindbody’s approach to
What inspired you to want to solve this problem?
My first appointment [when I was family planning], I was like, “I don't care what it costs, I just want a baby.” And then after about the first $100,000, you're like, “Wait, I do care what it costs.” That really started me asking questions and not being afraid to take my healthcare decisions into my own hands. It seemed like all of my friends were all going through treatment at the same time, but friends of mine in the Bay Area were paying a different amount than those of us in New York, and we were all on different protocols. I knew we really needed to educate and empower patients.
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What makes Kindbody a unique fertility benefits experience?
Only three things
How can fertility benefits become more inclusive?
It’s the little things that can have the biggest impact. Historically, you had to fill out a paper form and it asked for your gender and also for your husband's name, and those things are just insensitive today and don’t consider the LGBTQ community. If you go into our patient portal, you can pick your preferred pronouns, and there are dedicated member journeys.
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For example, if you're a same-sex female couple, it's going to suggest that you will need donor sperm. If you're a same-sex male couple, it will suggest gestational surrogacy, and third party egg donation. It is not one-size-fits-all.
Technology plays a big role in what Kindbody offers — what does that look like for patients?
We own our own proprietary technology so that we can provide total transparency to the patient as well as to the employer. We’re not a middleman. With other fertility benefit providers, once you refer that patient to a doctor you lose sight of them.
Recently, it was in the news that there was an embryo mix up in Los Angeles, and that happens more than people care to admit. But at Kindbody, we have RFID double witnessing, so that means all of the sperm and the eggs have RFID tags to make sure the embryo is going into the right couple.
What do you think 2022 has in store for fertility benefits?
In the past, if employers had fertility coverage, the traditional plan design would have been on a fee-for-service basis through the plan sponsor. The plan sponsor guidelines required a heterosexual couple to be trying for six to 12 months, and it would unintentionally discriminate towards same sex couples. Now, the plan sponsor is getting pressure from the employers to make changes.
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Going forward you’re going to see an increase in
Fertility benefits are table stakes, and in the future that means a greater focus on ensuring parity for underrepresented communities — Black, Brown, single moms and dads by choice. Benefits buyers know that the first iteration of this kind of vanilla coverage has to go deeper to ensure parity across their diverse member population.
