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Costco members get discounted pricing on everything from gasoline to rotisserie chickens. And now, that list includes affordable fertility care too.
Glamour can exclusively reveal that, starting today, the big-box warehouse chain is partnering with cash-pay health care platform Sesame and fertility experts IVI RMA North America to offer its 81 million global members access to comprehensive fertility care coordination and treatment as well as up to 80% savings on fertility medications with Costco exclusive pricing.
“We’re proud to support this partnership with Sesame and IVI RMA, which reflects our shared commitment to making fertility care more accessible and affordable for families,” Richard Stephens, senior vice president of pharmacy at Costco, tells Glamour. “Collaborating with leaders who bring both clinical expertise and innovative care coordination allows us to offer our Costco members meaningful support throughout their family-building journey with clarity, confidence, and peace of mind.”
This should be exciting news for the one in six Americans who deal with infertility, especially those without health insurance or who are paying out of pocket because of inadequate coverage. The biggest barriers to entry with fertility are affordability and access, something this partnership has the potential to address in a unique way.
Not only does Costco have locations all across the country as well as 145 million card holders, but IVI RMA is a leading expert in fertility care with its own large network of IVF laboratories. Meanwhile, Sesame is an innovative self-pay health care organization with a platform that operates in all 50 states and connects patients directly with doctors, without insurance as a middle-man.
An example of using Sesame through the Costco and IVI RMA partnership
Courtesy of Sesame
Basically, the partnership works like this: Costco members seeking fertility treatment have immediate access to Sesame clinicians—bypassing the typical three-to-six-month wait to see a reproductive endocrinologist—for a comprehensive intake and diagnostic workup. If additional care is required, such as IVF or egg freezing, patients will be referred to IVI RMA ready to start on a treatment plan right away. Sesame’s clinicians will also stay with the patient throughout any IVI RMA procedures to help translate medical terminology, provide emotional support, and offer any other care coordination needed.
This program also comes with a universal intake policy. Where other fertility clinics might screen a prospective patient for age or complexity, Sesame offers a comprehensive workup and coordinate care where appropriate.
This all sounds amazing, of course, but the cost benefits are what will have most people excited about the partnership. Any IVI RMA procedures required—including intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), and egg freezing—will come with Costco exclusive pricing on medications, about $1,640 to $2,296 per IVF cycle (based on 10 to 14 cartridges). To put that in perspective, a single IVF cycle of medications typically costs between $3,000 to $6,000 for self-pay patients. TrumpRx pricing ranges from $2,105 to $2,962 per cycle, before dispensing and shipping fees.
“This is a major financial investment for a family,” says David Goldhill, the CEO and founder of Sesame. “It’s worth it, I would say, having had my daughter through IVF. But it’s obviously a major cost. And I think the three of us have done a very good job of bringing that down. There’s an 80% decline on the medication, but there’s an additional decline on services that means the whole thing is meaningfully more affordable.”
Fertility treatment can be cost prohibitive even for patients with health insurance, in part because many people require more than one IVF cycle before seeing success. “I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding in our country that because someone has coverage, they’re fine, but that is not the case,” says Lynn Mason, CEO of IVI RMA North America. “There are so many costs that can come into play with fertility treatments. Someone with coverage can quickly become all out-of-pocket once they run through their benefits. Coverage is not equal state to state. We want to help those who are challenged with their medication costs, which for a lot of folks is still out-of-pocket, even if they have coverage, and those who need more than one round, which is a very realistic diagnosis to have.”
Goldhill believes this partnership will tackle the biggest barriers patients face, including cost, transparency, and ease of navigation. “We’ve obviously spent a good deal of time working through how we will coordinate helping patients through their journey and recognizing that it can be different for each family,” he says. “It’s not a cookie-cutter thing at all. It requires real medical care, real coordination, and obviously real treatment. Anyone who has seen the way the space works today can recognize that there are a lot of families who find this very, very difficult right now. But we view it as an extraordinary opportunity.”
The program is now available nationwide at sesamecare.com/service/fertility-program.
Originally Appeared on Glamour