Good luck Mez

The reason they make you wait is that things can change as you go through the cycle. For example cycles can get cancelled because of something unexpected. In that case the clinics usually only charge you a smaller fee. Or you may find that semen analysis shows a really poor sample meaning that you have to suddenly have ICSI - which increases the costs. That happened to us.

My clinic only makes me pay the expected out-of-pocket bit up front and they leave the medicare claimable part for afterwards. They send me the bill and ask me to send it on to Medicare. Then medicare sends my specialist the cheque directly. That's ok except that it REALLY slows the whole process for getting to the safety net and getting reimbursed because it takes weeks and weeks for medicare to send the cheque out to the specialist and the specialist to send you the receipt so you can go into Medicare to claim the difference on the safety net.

I learnt that one the hard way. On my second go I paid the second bill on my visa, got a receipt instantly and then rocked into Medicare to claim all of it back AND get my safety net for the first part of my treatment. It all happened in 7 days instead of 7 weeks. The guy at medicare said not to tell anyone! SO I AM.