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Employers Face Twin Challenge in 2018 Open Enrollment; Offer More, Spend LessAs employers unveil their open enrollment benefit offerings for 2018, they confront a dual challenge to provide more benefits while simultaneously reducing health care costs - and nowhere is that tension more evident than when it comes to employer-provided fertility care. "From human resource and corporate benefits managers to female and male employees alike, the need and desire for an affordable fertility benefit is overwhelming," Michael La Vean, Founder and President of Conceivex, creator of The Conception Kit® at-home system, said. As an insurance-reimbursed, FDA-cleared, at-home fertility therapy, the Conception Kit is specifically designed to be a new "first step" treatment that couples can affordably try before moving on to more expensive and invasive options, such as Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) which uses IntraUterine Insemination (IUI) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). As of November 1, 2017, Conceivex crossed a key threshold with more than 28 million lives covered with The Conception Kit by employers across a wide range of industry sectors, including: banking and finance, health care, technology, manufacturing, as well as municipal employees. "During the current open enrollment period, education about the availability of the Conception Kit option is critical," La Vean said. "Now is the opportunity for employers to be sure their offering includes this benefit and for employees to know it's there and to ask for it." In fact, millions of insured individuals in the U.S. already have reimbursable access to the Conception Kit through their pharma benefits managers (including Express Scripts, CVS/Caremark, and ProCare RX), and may not know it. The Conception Kit, which is available with a prescription for a modest $0-$50 co-pay, can also be found through pharmacies, including algreens, nationwide. Drug- and hormone-free, the Conception Kit helps put couples in charge of their fertility and makes it easier for companies to support them on their path to conception. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ART produces multiple births more than 46.1 percent of the time, compared to Conception Kit users who have the standard rate of multiple births, 3.5 percent. The CDC also found that twins are premature 59 percent of the time and triples are premature 98 percent of the time. As a result, the potential cost savings for employers - who, even if they do not cover the fertility benefits, will have to cover the health care and hospitalization costs for the births and for any future health care issues with those children - are enormous. In fact, a study of longer-term fertility costs by Optum found that the average newborn hospital admission cost for ART-conceived twins is $89,250 per newborn (or $178,500 in total) and $304,000 for triplets per newborn (or $912,000) in total. See Optum study: https://www.optum.com/content/dam/optum/resources/whitePapers/72815_Infertility_WP.pdf The FDA required a clinical trial on placement of the Conception Kit's Conception Cap® (a cervical cap that is used for insemination at home) and instructions by patients. While the trial focused on women's ability to use the Conception Kit, understand instructions, and place the Conception Cap correctly, the most exciting outcome was that 24 percent of the couples in the at-home study became pregnant within the first month. Patients who had struggled to conceive prior to using the Conception Kit and had attempted other forms of assisted reproduction were enrolled in the study. Conceivex, Inc., manufactures and distributes The Conception Kit® at-home system, a safe, effective, FDA-cleared, drug- and hormone-free, affordably priced health care product that helps couples overcome infertility privately at home. The Conception Kit is also available with a simple co-pay via pharmacy benefit managers, including Express Scripts and ProCare RX; individual, small, and large insurers; and at pharmacies, including Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, Walmart, and Target (News - Alert) nationwide. Drug-and hormone-free, the Conception Kit is available to couples who use their existing insurance coverage for a modest $0-$50 co-pay. Find out more at http://www.conceptionkit.com/, on Facebook (News - Alert) at https://www.facebook.com/conceptionkit/, on LinkedIn, and on Twitter (News - Alert) (@conceptionkit). PA 24-2017 View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171116005362/en/ |
