Federal Goverment employee - which plan has best IF benefits?

[melgrace]

My DH works for the VA and they have an overwhelming number of insurance company options (for federal employees). We have GEHA now, which only pays for testing - no treatment at all. I am trying to get him to bring all the books home on them since it almost open enrollment to see if there is a better one. There are so many though! Was wondering if anyone on here had insurance through federal goverment institution and knew of one with better coverage?

[eli]

Hi, I also work for the VA (VAMC) but I work in NY. I think different areas will have different plans. My hospital also offers a huge selection of health plans. I researched them all the best one was GHI. My GHI plan covers 3 IVFs and 3 FETs, and lots of other stuff. Even if you use all that up, it will still cover medications, office visits, and things like sonograms, and other tests. Hope you can find something similar. The FEHB open season is just about to start so I would highly recommend that your dh go to the health fair and talk to each insurance rep. Also, just get a list and start calling and asking. He/or you, could also talk to someone in HR... but they might not really know so I'd probably just research it myself if I were you. Good luck!

[melgrace]

Thanks! I read something about that plan on another thread as well. I reminded him (AGAIN!) to go to HR and get all the books so we can look over them.

[Fed'sWife]

Ours is weird we have Blue Cross FED.
It's hard to understand. They Customer Service Rep told me one thing, the Finance person at Dr. office said NOTHING is covered.
Strangest thing ever though. I took my prescriptions to the local pharmacy to get them filled/ordered expecting it to be close to 2K (injectibles and all) they just charged co-pays and it was less than 300.00 WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE!
Some they had to order, but we couldn't believe it was that easy (KNOCK ON WOOD) I hope I didn't just jinx us.

[melgrace]

That is weird! My DH finally brought home a couple of the books - I am weeding through them.

[lorelei]

It depends on where you live, too. I live in California and have 3 options that offer infertility coverage. Most of it covers 50% and none cover IVF. The best one is Kaiser Permanente, which covers up to 6 medicated IUI cycles. The other options only cover 3.

[Ruby711]

I'm a fed and have been looking....Most of them cover one thing or another...I currently have Aetna, and haven't paid much for all the tests etc (15K-20K), I've only had to pay co-pays.....The prob is they only cover three IUI's, some of the others cover more or don't have a limit, but you may have to pay 50% of the costs.......Aetna doesn't cover injectables, some of the others do.....Oh so confusing...Especially since I don't know if I'm going to even need the injectables or more than 3 IUI's...At least we have a little while to decide...

[Ruby711]

Also, Feds can go to http://www.opm.gov/insure/ and look at the brochures for every plan the government offers in your area.

[sherick]

Hello,

I'm also a fed employee and am trying to find the plan with the best infertility coverage, specifically iui and ivf. I'm in CA and have BCBS right now and they cover NOTHING!

I know this is an older thread, but does anyone know the better fed plans for infertility treatment?

Many thanks!!!!

[PradasMom]

Hello,

I'm also a fed employee and am trying to find the plan with the best infertility coverage, specifically iui and ivf. I'm in CA and have BCBS right now and they cover NOTHING!

I know this is an older thread, but does anyone know the better fed plans for infertility treatment?

Many thanks!!!!

Hi, my hubby works for the Gov't (he's a top-secret-agent for Dept Homeland Security). Actually he confiscates water at the airport and checks for unusual behaviour (other than mine!).

He has the Blue Shield HMO that the gov't offers, and it does cover 6 IUI cycles at 50% - only 3 with injectables however, med's we don't know, IVF I believe is 0% covered.

My insurance (Blue Cross Anthem PPO Lumenos 1500= mouthful) covered $1,500 LIFETIME of any & all IF treatments. Hell, we blew through that at Stanford before the car was parked! So we are pursuing HARD through his to find an alternate RE Dr. that we can do a few more IUI's through.

It took us 3 MONTHS of prying with our primary MD at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation to get a referral to "out of network infertility specialist" , but WE GOT IT- I still don't have the actual letter, but I have a "reference number" and armed with that we are heading to 2 more clinics for primary appointments and to see if insurance (his HMO) will cover the 50% at these locations.

We checked the various plans available to him online, and this seemed the best. None cover IVF from what we could see.

Do Fed Employees of different divisions have different insurance, or is it pretty much the same for each state? IE would all Calif employees have the same options? Just wondering....

Christine/ P.Mom.