Infertility & IVF Center Treatment Plans

On January 1, 2010, the Infertility & IVF Center will start a new cycle payment plan much like many programs throughout the country are using. It is an all-inclusive payment plan which includes any of the services normally associated with an IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) Cycle instead of the previous ala carte payment plans. This will help the patient know the end costs up front instead of being surprised by add-on costs under the old plans. The following plan descriptions will help you understand exactly what is covered for each plan.

 Please Note!

It becomes necessary for all prospective patients to read this entire section carefully before calling us about questions or fees. Make a printed copy to have available for reference at the time of the call to make it easier for both you and our staff. We are here to serve you and serve you well.

The Traditional Fresh IVF Cycle Fee | The Frozen Embryo Cycle Fee | The Donor Egg Cycle | The Donor Embryo Plan | Items Not Covered in the Cycle Plan Fees

The Traditional Fresh IVF Cycle Fee includes:

• Office visits, during the treatment cycle, for monitoring.
• All training provided by our nurses to obtain a clear understanding of the patient’s role throughout the cycle.
• All communications with the staff to ensure the best outcome possible.
• All monitoring including ultrasounds and blood testing.
• Semen processing for fertilization on the day of egg retrieval.
• Semen freezing and storage for up to 6 months to be available for back-up.
• The Egg Retrieval including anesthesia delivered by the Anesthesia Department of  Missouri Baptist Hospital. This process requires the physician to perform the retrieval, nursing staff assistance, a Laboratory Director (PhD), laboratory staff, and all the equipment and supplies necessary for us to provide you with the high success rates we have attained as confirmed through SART. These statistics are available to you through SART.COM.
• All laboratory support for the fertilization of eggs and the culturing of embryos. In our Center this is a five day process.
• A highly technical procedure called ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Insertion) is frequently necessary to accomplish fertilization and this is also provided as needed.
• We also provide Assisted Hatching with most embryo transfers which is a micro-manipulative procedure to help the embryo hatch (like a chicken egg) and  help implantation.
• The embryo transfer performed by the physician and the assistance of the nursing and laboratory staff.
• Cryopreservation of extra embryos, not transferred, for use in the future. This includes one year of storage in our cryobank.
• One pregnancy test.

The Frozen Embryo Cycle Fee for the transfer of your previously Frozen Embryos includes:

• Office visits, during the treatment cycle, for monitoring.
• All training.
• All communications.
• All monitoring.
• All laboratory support for the thawing and culturing of embryos.
• Assisted Haching.
• All embryo transfer services.
• One pregnancy test.

The Donor Egg Cycle includes:

• There are two patients involved in this type of cycle, the donor and the recipient.
• Basically, everything covered for the donors' cycle is described  under the traditional IVF cycle above but the donor’s cycle ceases after the egg retrieval.
• Everything covered under the frozen embryo cycle is included for the recipient’s cycle but the embryos are fresh and not frozen.
• Donors must meet stringent criteria laid down by the U.S. Government Center for Disease Control (CDC) for your safety. This involves a thorough evaluation of the donor for infectious disease, genetic and familial diseases, general health, and ovarian function. It is difficult to find good donors and usually a number of women need to be evaluated for each donor that we accept. The cost for this is included in your cycle fee.
• We must pay the donor a fee to cover her time, expenses, time lost from school or work, risks and suffering. That fee is presently $5000 and is included in our fee.
• There is a lot more administrative time spent in these cycles than in the individual cycles. These expenses are covered in your fee.
• All donor medications.

The Donor Embryo Plan includes:

• Clinically, this cycle, from the patient’s viewpoint, is almost identical to the Frozen Embryo Cycle. However, since donor tissue is used, the CDC again becomes involved. As a result, the laboratory and administrative needs are very much increased. A great deal of time must be spent in identifying the best embryos to use for each recipient. Further, it becomes difficult to bring the donating couples back for the required testing. Sometimes it is even impossible and the process must start all over again with different embryos if they are available. These cycles are more labor intensive for our staff.

Items Not Covered in the Cycle Plan Fees:

• Medications must be purchased from the pharmacy except for the donor’s medications in Donor Egg Plans.
• Pre-cycle evaluation and diagnosis which is covered by insurance in almost 99% of the cases. The cycle plans cover treatment only.
• Male infertility in which the sperm must be obtained from the testicles or epididymus through procedures like PESA,TESA and TESE. However, we perform these procedure in our office when needed.
• Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) in which genetic disorders must be identified through the use of outside genetic laboratories

Please give us a call at 636-CALL-IVF (636-225-5483) and schedule a consultation with Dr. Wilbois, our Medical Director, for further information.