TLDR
Crystal and Lanea discuss their experiences with infertility and the financial challenges they faced. They share creative solutions they found to fund their fertility treatments, including working at Amazon for insurance coverage and moving to a state with mandated IVF coverage.
They also discuss the high cost of medical bills and the frustrations of dealing with insurance companies.
The main takeaway is that where there is a will, there is a way to overcome financial obstacles in the journey to parenthood.
Takeaways
- 15% of couples struggle with infertility.
- Creative solutions can be found to fund fertility treatments, such as working at a company with insurance coverage or moving to a state with mandated IVF coverage.
- Dealing with medical bills and insurance companies can be frustrating and time-consuming.
- Where there is a will, there is a way to overcome financial obstacles in the journey to parenthood.
Transcript
Crystal (00:00)
Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the Piggy Bank Patrol podcast, where we believe getting parents talking about money will break generations of secrecy and set their children up for financial success. I want to preface that nothing in this podcast is legal or financial advice. Everything we say is our own opinion, and you should consult the proper channels when making decisions that impact your life. We take no responsibility for your choices.
Hey Lanea, did you know that 15 % of couples struggle with infertility?
Lanea (00:32)
yes, Crystal, I did know that. Because I’m one of the 15%.
Crystal (00:37)
I know, me too. And it’s crazy that it’s just 15 % because when I look back at all of the conversations I’ve had over the last two to three years, it’s more like 80 % of my friend group.
Lanea (00:50)
It does seem all -encompassing when you’re in it. I don’t think when you’re not in it, you realize how many people are affected, or it feels like everybody is affected.
Crystal (01:02)
you went through it a little bit differently than I did just because ours was caused by a virus.
but it’s still at the end of the day, like a male factor issue and doctors tend to look at the females first
Lanea (01:18)
So ours was also male factor, but we kind of knew in the very beginning. So we went pretty much straight to IVF. So when we decided to start our family, we contacted a reproductive endocrinologist right from the get go.
Crystal (01:39)
And the way that you funded it was absolutely genius. I never would have thought about it. do you know if the way that you funded it with the insurance, if that is a company wide across like the US that they offer or just like a Nebraska thing?
Lanea (01:56)
it’s us wide. So I think we have to back up a little bit because when we started, you know, we were looking at all of our options, what was available to us. And I realized like, what the fuck? How are we going to pay for this? This is an insane amount of money because we were looking at like 30 grand
Crystal (02:01)
Yes.
Lanea (02:22)
and of course there’s the medicines, there’s the appointments, and if you don’t do it locally, you have to have local monitoring because you’re going in every other day for blood draws and ultrasounds. so I first looked at our insurance because I work for the state and my husband works for the feds. So we figured between one of the 14 different plans available.
Crystal (02:46)
Right?
Lanea (02:47)
there would be some infertility coverage, but no, there was no IVF coverage. So thinking about it, I was just like, this is ridiculous. There has to be a better way than paying for this out of pocket. I can’t be the only one. I just, I can’t be. So I went on Reddit.
And this is where I found it. So I can’t even take credit for it because some genius individual was kind enough to post it online. The Reddit gods have spoken, thus has provided. Praise be. I think I originally even kind of got the idea because I saw an article or a news story.
Crystal (03:18)
Reddit gods have spoken.
Praise be!
Lanea (03:39)
couple years ago about how somebody worked for Starbucks for fertility coverage because they offer it to part -time employees. But I work 40 hours a week and I enjoy my time off. I don’t want to really work more than that. So I looked and it turns out that Amazon has day one benefits and
their day one benefits include progeny, which covers IVF. So that’s where my whole career at Amazon really started. Career being two days. So this was around the fall and I went online and I kind of put it off, honestly, because I’m like, my God,
I was dreading going for like a day at Amazon. I was just like, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. But then Adam was like, just apply. I put in my name and I thought that this was going to be like whole application process. And I’m like, I haven’t updated my resume and I can’t even use my resume because this is like a professional thing.
Crystal (04:52)
it was actually like a packing job or…
Lanea (04:55)
It was more distribution, but yes, it was like actually in the warehouse.
Crystal (05:00)
so you’re there and you’re presenting your resume and you’re like, hey, I do finance things, can I pack boxes?
Lanea (05:09)
I mean, it wasn’t even that. was literally they asked for your name, your social security number, are you legally able to work in the United States and will you take a drug test? And then they were like,
Crystal (05:21)
my god, that’s so much easier than the test they made me take!
Lanea (05:26)
I know and they’re like, congratulations. When can you come in for the drug test? They’re like, you got the job. So I applied that Friday or might have been Saturday and it’s either Friday or Saturday. And that Sunday I went in, I drove to Omaha, I took a drug test and then I started that next Friday night.
I worked that week and this particular position was overnight. It started at I think 1 a So I went to work that Friday. I came home, I slept, I woke up, I drove to Amazon and I did that overnight. And I started with a class of, I think it was seven and by
Saturday afternoon, so two shifts in. It was down to me and one other person and I was not going to go in for another shift because I just did this for insurance.
Crystal (06:25)
One person left standing. Who shall prevail?
Lanea (06:28)
The one person left standing. But I will, I have to give Amazon credit that they were extremely safe. It was extremely clean. They, it seemed like the managers there, you know, it’s obviously a factory job, but if I had no other options or even if my options were limited, it really wasn’t.
that bad, boring, but not that bad. And it was the best insurance of my life. So I got the insurance and then we started IVF.
Crystal (07:03)
Now I know a lot of listeners are thinking, okay, but you are not working there anymore. So the employer is not paying their share. The Cobra share you had a cover out of pocket.
Lanea (07:15)
Yes, so we did cover Cobra, but there’s a little bit more to it because
You can sign up for an HSA and you can contribute, think it was $2 ,700 per year. And the way that Amazon does it is they front load it and you don’t have to pay it back. So my Cobra plus the $2 ,700 for the HSA, which was more than my deductible.
that covered quite a good chunk of it. my Cobra was, I think it was, it was either $800 or $900 a month. and we did do that for several months, but it was vastly cheaper than paying for it out of pocket. And I have to say Amazon was the best insurance that I have ever had.
I had surgery under it. I was put under twice for the egg retrieval and the scope and yeah, yeah, it was the best insurance ever. They, yeah, they paid it all. There was a deductible with progeny that you have to meet, but I used the HSA to pay for the deductible.
Crystal (08:20)
They paid it all.
it all comes out in the wash. Nice.
Lanea (08:31)
Yes. And we even kept it longer than we needed to, because I wanted to be extra safe to make sure to make it through the first trimester. So I could have got by with even less, but he’s here and he’s wonderful.
Crystal (08:49)
Yes, it was worth the extra months of peace of mind.
Lanea (08:54)
Absolutely.
Crystal (08:55)
Because that never would have happened with the state’s insurance.
Lanea (08:59)
one of our coworkers is desperately trying to fight for it now and making no progress. So it just, it’s not going to happen in Nebraska.
Crystal (09:06)
Yep.
Yep, I saw that bill go through legislature and I don’t know what stage it’s at now, but I don’t think it’s going to go.
Lanea (09:17)
And keep in mind too, this was pre Alabama’s embryo IVF ruling. So the political landscape has changed quite a bit since then. So now there’s war on IVF.
Crystal (09:25)
Yes.
we moved to New York because we also had infertility, but it was caused by COVID. The virus, it creates a high temperature and it makes it so they can’t create like sperm, like good sperm, okay.
So you just got these little half guys running around not even getting off the couch. They’re bumping in the walls and stuff. They can’t get anything done. And they die off. So it’s just like you’re just out there shooting blanks.
Lanea (10:07)
disabled sperm.
Crystal (10:09)
Yes, exactly. don’t it’s not even that they’re deformed like that’s common in India where the the heads are misshapen or the tails are elongated or too short. It’s that they just they ain’t there and they ain’t coming back, you know, and you wouldn’t think that a virus would have such an impact on the body that it would take so long that
the couple would be like, wait a minute, what’s going on? Because it’s not one of those things you can just, you know, be like, look at it and be like, yeah, okay. Because I don’t have a microscope.
Lanea (10:51)
Yeah
Very true.
Crystal (10:55)
So we finally went to the urologist, but honestly on the state insurance. It took three months because it was a specialist visit. So I had to like schedule it in advance and three hundred dollars. And half of the three hundred was refunded back because they just weren’t sure if the insurance would cover it. So they made us pay the whole like three hundred out of pocket and then. Yeah.
Lanea (11:09)
wow.
Okay, alright.
Crystal (11:21)
But that was like one of the only urologists that specialized in infertility in the area.
Lanea (11:29)
Okay.
Crystal (11:30)
I guess? That worked with our insurance?
Lanea (11:33)
That’s fair. Well, actually, urologists are kind of hard to come by that deal with infertility. That’s what we kind of learned when we were on our journey.
At least in Nebraska, but you guys made an interesting decision because part of your decision to move was for benefits, correct?
Crystal (11:55)
Yeah, so I was like, well, your tests aren’t getting better because we tested every three months and it was just it was marginal. So I was like, we want to start an orchard. We don’t want to work these day jobs for the rest of our life. Let’s go to a state that has land we can afford because Nebraska does not. And then
also has IVF mandated legislatively forcing the coverage. And that state was New York. There’s a ton of other states. Maryland covers it. There’s a couple others. I didn’t really look into them because I was like, cost of living. Can’t afford it. Too many people. So we went.
to New York because upstate New York is a treasure trove of beautiful rolling hills, mountains, and vineyards and orchards.
that’s kind of like taking it a step further. Honestly, the out of pocket to move was only 3000, so.
Lanea (12:58)
So it might be worth it, know, if anybody is looking for creative ways to fund infertility.
mean, it’s honestly a consideration. Like it really truly is. And I looked into other places, but they didn’t have day one insurance. But there’s other places that have options. But Reddit was a great resource. Facebook was actually a resource. They have an Amazon infertility group and they also have a progeny infertility group as well.
We ran into some issues when we were going through it because they do have insurance. They require coordination of care, so that took a while to work through. But if you want something, there are options that are available.
Crystal (13:45)
Yep, where there is a will, there’s a way. You just have to get creative sometimes and sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do,
Lanea (13:50)
Exactly.
I just pulled up my breakdown of my baby making category and I can tell you dollar for dollar where everything went and what it was spent on.
Crystal (13:52)
in the
my god, yes! I know off the top of my head, the just the little HCG strips I spent like maybe 80 bucks on. But that that was it. Like we didn’t need IVF. It was a surprise.
Lanea (14:04)
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, I…
We yeah, I have everything so I have both outflows and inflows. So the total with everything was $8 ,446 and of that.
$2 ,342 went to Cobra Payments. $1 ,200 went to Heart Loan Center for Reproductive Care, which is the IVF. And that’s pre -IVF and, that’s pre -IVF. So that is all of the things that went into it. And my husband did have surgery as well, so that’s included in there.
$925 went to Progeny to cover our co -pay. I paid $399 for acupuncture because I was desperate after our first transfer failed and I was willing to do anything that I thought might help. $312 went to Nebraska Medicine to pay for the physician fee for Adam’s surgery.
$249 went to SEMA 4 to cover the genetic testing for Adam and myself. $191 went to LabCorp for blood test testing for Adam. And then the remaining $206 went to various places.
for supplements and stuff. So Amazon, CVS, there was one medication that we needed that was not able to ship in time from progeny, but we needed it because we were going on a cruise that left the country. So that’s where $74 went.
Crystal (16:09)
But overall, that’s not too bad.
Lanea (16:11)
No, no. And then I had $925 for my HSA at my full time job reimbursed as well. So I really didn’t think that was bad because that covered November, December, January, February, March, April, we got pregnant, June and July. Eight months.
But we, my husband and I joke that he’s a hundred thousand dollar baby because when we looked at the bills for everything, I think we were at, it was between 30 and 40 grand for IVF alone. We had 30 grand for his delivery because he was born via c-section and my surgery was 20 grand. So it was, yeah, it’s a pricey baby.
Speaking of medical bills, I’m still dealing with medical insurance from when I was pregnant with Leo and his delivery. We’re down to $511 that’s in collections at this point, but we’re still working on that. So that’s, that’s for another episode.
Crystal (17:11)
Yeah.
Right? it’s a way that insurance companies don’t have to step up and take responsibility for their share of the cost, telling people that they have to do coordination of care and then not providing
coordination of care, running you through loophole of loop after loop of phone calls is asinine.
Lanea (17:53)
It really is. I think I’ve spent six, I spent at least six hours on the phone with United at this point.
Crystal (18:01)
This country in general needs more consumer protection against insurance companies at this point. Like, could you imagine what kind of loopholes you’d have to jump through if Leo had been like super sick when he was born and then they’re pulling that shit? Like you have him, he’s in the NICU for like
Lanea (18:12)
Yep.
Crystal (18:29)
three months or more on a tube, not being able to eat. And the insurance company is like, sorry, we don’t know where Debra went. She has your paperwork.
Lanea (18:41)
Well, and I think that we’re both relatively savvy when it comes to the medical industry given our background. We’re both pretty frugal and will not be screwed over. So if we have to be on the phone for hours, we will.
Crystal (18:55)
He said mama. He said his first words. Raph interrupted me to tell me that my baby said mama.
Lanea (19:06)
Aww.
Crystal (19:08)
He’s only five months, he didn’t do it on purpose. He did it multiple times. He’s saying mama. He’s holding his chew stick. I’m so sorry. It’s OK. He’s actually looking for you. know. Bye, baby.
Honestly, I heard him say mama earlier, but he did not do it on purpose.
Lanea (19:30)
Leo does not say mama on purpose. He says mama a lot, but not on purpose.
Crystal (19:35)
Right, they don’t know yet. They don’t, they can’t connect meanings.
Lanea (19:39)
They’ll get there. They’ll get there.
Crystal (19:40)
Yeah,
But in general, on the topic of hospital bills, I still haven’t had the time to add mine up from birth. I had to fight a coordination of care bill of $3 ,700. And I had UHC and Medicaid my bill zero. I called the like I called the billing company.
And I literally was like, guys, my bill is zero. they were like, your bill is $3 ,700. Please pay.
Lanea (20:10)
You’re like, no, my bill is zero.
Crystal (20:12)
I’m like, yes, my bill is zero. Don’t make me come over there and show you how to enter it in.
Lanea (20:20)
It is so frustrating. is so, and I’ve been on the, I’ve had to three -way call with United, the hospital, and then United and the collection agency. So it’s just been a real treat.
Crystal (20:35)
it’s insane. Honestly, I’d be sending UHC a bill. Yep, will pay it.
Lanea (20:38)
an invoice for time.
Crystal (20:42)
But I think,
The max amount they charge between me and my baby was last I looked at pushed like 48 ,000.
Lanea (20:56)
my gosh, okay. and Leo had suspected IUGR, so he, actually did additional monitoring. So I wonder how much that would, that would be, because we were doing non -stress tests and fetal growth scans quite frequently.
Crystal (21:14)
we didn’t do much stress testing, but at the end, when I started having the palpitations and problems with existing, they added in extra scans.
Lanea (21:21)
Mmm, yeah. Yeah.
Okay, yeah, that makes sense.
Crystal (21:27)
And at one point they were afraid that they would have to induce me early because they measured him being insanely huge.
Lanea (21:37)
Yeah, I remember that. We had the exact opposite problems.
Crystal (21:41)
It’s either too small or too big, there’s no in between.
Lanea (21:45)
There’s no happy, there’s no happy media.
Crystal (21:47)
Nope. And you wouldn’t like before I got pregnant, that’s not something I thought about. I didn’t think about size, but then they’re like, we need to scan you again in two weeks to make sure he can come out.
And he ended up being a normal eight pound baby, so what do they know?
Lanea (22:06)
Leo was only six pounds 13 ounces. So he was definitely normal size, he wasn’t, that’s a whole pound smaller than Tristian.
Crystal (22:19)
Yeah.
So now that you have your baby, you have your job, your house and your car and your cat and your dog and your husband, what else is left to get?
Lanea (22:29)
Rental Properties.
Crystal (22:31)
That’s right! And maybe the wedding venue.
Lanea (22:38)
Yes, I mean, I would love a wedding venue. I would love that as a side hustle.
Crystal (22:46)
So
If you’re struggling with infertility, your homework today is to figure out your options and what you want to do going forward. Lanea presented some pretty creative solutions and I believe Reddit and as you said, Facebook, hit those up, see what you can find. And if you want to share your story, comments are open. Get back to us.
Lanea (23:10)
think the main thing there is where there is a will, there is a way. When it comes to finances, if you want it to happen, can definitely make it happen. You just have to be creative.
Crystal (23:15)
Yes.
Exactly. Well, thanks so much for meeting with me tonight, Lanea
Lanea (23:25)
What’s the?
Absolutely, it’s always a pleasure.
Crystal (23:32)
See you guys later. Bye.
Lanea (23:33)
Bye.