The Cost involved with IVF

[wantababy]

I have went to Hunter IVF and had my inital consultation. Now I have to get a blood test and hubbie gets a semen analysis. Our next appointment with Dr Hedges, nurse and counsellor is on 14 April. We are out of towners so Hunter IVF are fantastic in making all the appointments on the same day. We will go through assisted IVF and possibly ICSI. We are not in a health fund. What cost do you think we are up for? I understand the Medicare Rebate applies and so after spending $1000 out of pocket we get 80% rebate on out of pocket.

What does IVF cost? What does day hospital and anethitist charge? Also, do we pay it all t Hunter IVF and then we get Medicare cheque back or do we just pay the gap?

Sorry about all the questions but I am so anxious. If anyone could help me that would be fantastic. I just want to make sure we have enough money before we even bother going down back down to Newcastle.

Any help would be great.

[BabyWish]

Has anyone been through IVF with Queensland Fertility Group (QFG)? I have been referred to Dr Bob Watson with QFG and am wondering about costs for their services.

I am with QFG at the moment and was wondering the costs as well. Can anyone help?

[DJ]

Hi Cherie & Baby Wish,

I just had an appointment with my specialist to discuss this all on Tuesday. We are Brisbane based. My DH & I were thinking it would be way out of our budget (sounds awful planning a baby around a budget but after 4 yrs to TTC and 6 months of no success on clomid & IUI we have had to seriously consider it)...well we were pleasantly surprised. Looks like we will only be out of pocket about $1600 for IVF (my understanding it is extra for ICSI) that is only if everything goes according to the plan our specialist has set out for us. The killer is the initial outlay of $4400 to the QFG upfront. This includes most costs including drugs etc and is all claimable.
Sorry I cannot be more specific but I'm at work and have left on the paper work at home (not something I want to go brandishing around the office)
If I remember I'll post from home this weekend.
Cheers
Happy Easter
Deb

[Danni]

hey guys,

we are seeing Dr Gronow at the royal womens hospital in melbourne.

has anyone done ivf there? so far all of our treatments and tests have been free. semen analysis, ultrasounds, blood tests etc.

When does it start costing us? thanks!

[Visitor9]

Danni,
I saw Dr Gronow but in his private office at the Freemasons, are you going through public or private? All the tests you had we had done at various labs and got a bill for.Dr Gronow is under MIVF and the charges are done accordingly to that. I'm not sure whether it is on there website, it use to be. I also think it is posted earlier in this thread. Fingers crossed you don't need it and this month is a BFP
Bec

[Danni]

Thanks bec!

we are currently seeing him publically at the womens--does that make it cheaper at all?

[Visitor9]

Yeah makes a huge difference just a pain the waiting. I'm not sure whether you will be charged at all, I don't know anyone who has done it. You will have to let me know . But with most procedures that are done publically there is a minimal if not no charge. Might want to check the RWH website and see it has anything on it regarding infertility treatment
Bec

[zap]

Hey danni,

I saw dr grownow at his private practice and was advised by my gp to see him publicly. so no cost to you so far? That sounds great! I know the wait is crazy though! Can send me your email address so we can keep in touch i am reconsidering making another appointment with him as these herbs are doing me no good.

take care
racheal

[Elaine]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the information you have given. However, I find all these costs confusing, especially with private insurance and medicare factored in as well.

Ok.. here is my situation. I have mild endometriosis diagnosed nearly 2 years ago when I had my endometrioma removed during a laparoscopy. I had 6 months of Synarel and then it took about 3 months before I got my period back. So, I've been TTC since about Mar/Apr '07. I know most of you might think that 1 year of trying isn't very long, but at nearly 32, I really don't want to be wasting too much time trying. I've been on several cycles of clomid, maybe 4 or 5, nothing has happened. I've even tried chinese herbal medicine. Now, I've gotten to the point where I've had enough of it, I've stopped clomid and the chinese herbs and just gone back to usual.

I was seeing a doctor at Monash IVF, but since I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere, I've since changed over to QFG and had my first appointment with my new doctor there. He gave me a few options, and ultimately it is our decision to make. I could have a salpingo/hysterogram, 2nd look laparoscopy or just go straight to IVF. After a bit of thought and also advice from a few friends at work who've been through it, going straight to IVF instead of wasting time and money on the other procedures seemed the way to go.

So, here is where I am confused. As far as I know I have basic pregnancy and hospital cover with HCF. Taking that into account and also the medicare rebate, what would it cost in total, and what would my out-of-pocket likely be? And let's say if i didn't have any private health cover, how much would my OOP be then? I am really confused how much medicare covers in terms of IVF. I've tried looking it up on the internet, but I can't seem to find anything in plain english. Perhaps someone here might know.

I would really appreciate any help. Thank you very much in advance.

Cheers,
Elaine

[melbel]

To be perfectly honest private health makes very little difference where IVF is concerned. The only real benefit of PHI is that you can choose to have the egg pick up done in a private hospital. We have top of the line PHI and the only part of the IVF treatment we use it for is the Hospital admission and assoicated surgeons and anaestheists cost for the egg pick up. Medicare is responsible for determining the rebates on all the other costs of the cycle and PHI is not liable for any of that. So you will be out of pocket anywhere from Approx $1500 upwards on a stim cycle is my best guess. The costs go up from there if you add in special procedures like ICSI or PGD where your out of pocket is as much as $5000 a cycle.
Without knowing what the fees are at your particular clinic and what type of IVF you are having it is really hard to give an accurate answer. there may be someone on here who has dealt with QFG before who can be more specific.

[nic]

Elaine,
Do you have the brochure from QFG with all the paperwork? In it there is a sheet with the expected out of pocket costs, from memory it was (before their increase this year) around $1800 OOP with PHI for a stim cycle - not including any excess you have with your PHI. That figure does not take into account the safety net. So if you have already reached it or are part way there, you will possibly be out of pocket less. We were somewhere around $1400-$1500 OOP with our stim cycle before they had their 6% increase.

Goodluck with everything

Nic

[Janie71]

Hi Elaine,

First thing you need to make sure is that you are registered for your Medicare Safety Net. This ensures that after your out of pocket expenses in a calander year meet $1,058.70, you start to get 80% of out of pocket costs back.

At MIVF a stimulated cycle costs approximately $2,800 up front (you need to be able to cover this cost until about 2 weeks after your cycle finishes). If you have already reached your safety net, your out of pocket expenses will be approximately $670 after Medicare have applied the safety net. Not covered under this is the cost for Syneral and the admission to hospital for egg pick up, pretty much everything else is covered. The cost for the bed at Freemasons is $700 and this is where your private health insurance kicks in. You should be able to get a item number for that procedure from the accounts department at your clinic. Best thing to do is ring your health insurer and ask if they cover that item number.

You should be able to make an appointment with someone in the accounts department who will be able to run through all the costs with you as each clinic is different and I believe that MIVF is one of the cheaper ones.

GL
Janie x

[Danni]

email me at danni85@dodo.com.au

[jodestar]

Hey Danni,

I have just sent you a email to the above link you put in. I hope you do not mind

After reading your posts I wanted to ask you a few questions about your treatment.

Thankyou jodie

[Loveinamist]

Hello I am a newbie and I am with Dr Molloy at QFG in Brisbane. I have tried to understand the brochures that outline the costs but I really do not understand them. I have no Private Health Cover but have registered for the Medicare Safety Net. I am not going to get private health cover because I can't wait for the 12 months waiting period. I am currently doing FSH (Puregon) injections after Clomid was unsuccessful and have been told that because of my PCOS there is a chance that I might produce too many eggs so I will either have to cancel the cycle or go onto the GIFT part of IVF. Has anyone done this and how much out of pocket were they? I guess there are not many people doing this without private health cover!!

[Loveinamist]

Hello! I am a little clearer now on my above question. I didn't realise that when you do injections you just keep on injecting until something happens!! I thought it was like clomid and you had a month and that was it. Well it has been about three weeks of injections and nothing significant has happened yet. That gives me a little time to save up the money if all my eggs decide to pop out at once!

[Megan]

Sorry fishukie, I didn't see your post earlier. I'm not sure of the cost of GIFT.

I don't have private health cover either and am about to start my first cycle of IVF in 2 weeks. Up front we have to pay $2500 and then we will also have the hospital and anaesthetist expenses on top of that. We're expecting it to reach around $3500 all up.
We have also registered for the Medicare safety net so I'm not sure what that means for how much we will get back??

[Loveinamist]

Sorry fishukie, I didn't see your post earlier. I'm not sure of the cost of GIFT.

I don't have private health cover either and am about to start my first cycle of IVF in 2 weeks. Up front we have to pay $2500 and then we will also have the hospital and anaesthetist expenses on top of that. We're expecting it to reach around $3500 all up.
We have also registered for the Medicare safety net so I'm not sure what that means for how much we will get back??

Hi thanks for your reply!!! I am so glad to hear of someone else doing all this without private health cover. We just felt that by the time we had paid a year of premiums then we would have paid for most of the expenses anyway! I had been unsure of the whole Medicare Safety Net stuff and was quite dismayed to hear recently that anything you have done in a hospital is not included! So even though the costs altogether for my laparoscopy (including anaethetists fees etc) came to about $1800 our total contribution to the safety net adds up to only $118!! My jaw dropped when the medicare lady told me that! We got about $600 - 700 back though from medicare when we made our claim so we are losing but not so much!
That does sound good though $3500 for full IVF. I guess that GIFT would be slightly cheaper??