Starting Jan. 1, a new state mandate requires large employer health benefit plans to cover the cost of fertility treatments, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. But there's a catch.
After a year of trying to start a family, Denver teacher Alison Yocum Johanson’s doctor told her that her next step in trying to get pregnant is in vitro fertilization.
But when Yocum Johanson asked Denver Public Schools’ human resources department if her insurance plan covered IVF, she was told it does not. “It’s just too darn expensive,” an HR department staff member said in a voicemail to Yocum Johnanson that she shared with Chalkbeat. “Even with the new state mandate, schools are allowed to opt out if they would like to. So we have opted out of participating in covering it.”
The new state mandate is a law passed by Colorado legislators in April. Starting Jan. 1, it requires large employer health benefit plans to cover the cost of fertility treatments, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. But there’s a catch. Exempt from state law are large employers like Denver Public Schools whose health benefit plans are self-funded, meaning that the employer takes on the risk, collects the premiums, and pays the insurance claims.