Tricare/fertility treatments?

xladybassx

I just posted about this in the TTTC board but I thought maybe I would have better luck asking the question here: Have any of you had experience working with Tricare for fertility treatments?  Here's the story...I called Tricare to find out what they do and don't cover and they said to me "we can't discuss benefits over the phone, go to our website to see what we do and don't cover".  Well, the website does not completely list everything it just says they cover testing, medication, injections, and therapy...but not IVF.  It doesn't even mention IUI and I'm sure there are other therapies too!  I asked at my doctor's office in case they had any info and they said that Tricare will cover anything except IUI and IVF but once you make the jump to either they will stop covering anything to do with fertility.  I thought that sounded really strange and I can't find anything on their website to substantiate this.  I would love to call and talk to a helpful person but apparently they "can't" tell me over the phone? (how does this make any sense?!?!?) Anyway, I did find on another military board that many people said the same thing as my doctors office.  Have any of you experienced this?

BLT20051

There was just a post about this the other day.

https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/64656527.aspx

GL! 

*blue*flower*

Their statement on their web site about everything is covered up to IVF is not true.  They do cover all your initial testing, and they will cover monitoring and meds for cycles using timed intercourse.  Doing the same monitoring and meds but doing IUI instead and they won't cover any of it.  Some people have been able to get the monitoring and meds paid for during IUI cycles and only had to pay for the actual IUI, but that isn't the case for many.  They do not cover anything for IVF, but there are several military facilities around the states that do IVF at a discounted rate.  Also, some civilian clinics will give a military discount for IVF.

Good luck!

hunt2005

Depends on where you are located, but if you can go through one of the MTFs that have an RE program, I'd do it. Doing my fertility treatments at one of the locations that covers IVF I had all the meds covered and just paid $250 for the IUI.

NewArmyMomma

Hi there! We did 7 cycles of IUIs that were covered at Tripler in Hawaii. We finally decided to move onto IVF and we could have either waited on their 2 year waiting list for a referral or just go civilian. We chose to go through the International Fertility Center of Hawaii https://internationalfertilitycenterofhawaii.com/. They were absolutely amazing and they offered an extremely low military rate! The staff is amazing and we got pregnant on our first cycle, expecting our baby in the next 3 weeks! I'm not sure why the IUI cycles, meds, and testing was all free for us. My husband just told me it wasn't covered or not covered by tricare, it's just something offered for free at Tripler. Try to get stationed out here!! And goodluck

Smudges*Mom

NewArmyMomma:

I'm not sure why the IUI cycles, meds, and testing was all free for us. My husband just told me it wasn't covered or not covered by tricare, it's just something offered for free at Tripler.

The military provides no or low cost infertility treatment at select MTF locations as part of their training program for medical professionals. They need to have patients to work with, so as service members and dependents dealing with infertility, we reap the benefits. When we did our IVF cycle at Walter Reed, back in 2008, the Army had a grant that paid for all of our IVF related medications.

The link provided above covers a lot of ground. Good luck with your next steps. Infertility sucks.

YankeeNavyWife

Bacon+lettuce+tomato:

There was just a post about this the other day.

https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/64656527.aspx

GL! 

This...

Rachelkins

my experience:

We have tricare prime. my husband is active duty enlisted navy. We are stationed at the hospital in Bethesda and got fertility treatment at Walter Reed in DC before it closed down, but i'm pretty sure its all still the same over at Bethesda now.

For us all of our testing was covered including blood test and ultrasounds. All our meds were covered too (they put husband and I both on Clomid). Dr. Visits are covered too of course. For the 3 IUI's we did with clomid we paid about $200 per cycle i think, we had to pay up front each time we went to the hospital for the procedure. Our next step was IVF which we did pay the "deposit" for being on the list which was about $400 i think (we didn't end up having to do IVF cuz amazingly we got preg naturally, after 3 1/2 years of trying). the "deposit" for the IVF list was non-refundable. IVF would have cost us about $6000- $8000 per round, which is A LOT of $$ for us, but way less than any civilian options.

 Also; some other things we had to do: I can't remember what it's called, but I had to do that ink test MRI type procedure/test, where they put the dye in your uterus and into your fallopian tubes to see if they are all open and everything. Tricare, covered that. My husband has to get an ultrasound of his testicles to see if they were blocked or anything too, and the ultrasound was covered by tricare (that's when we found out he had testicular cancer, which is a whole other story, but all of that stuff was covered by tricare as well). They also covered all of his Semen Analysis tests before and after the treatments.

 Hoppe this helps. Feel free to message me with any questions.