Costco, Sesame, IVI RMA partner on fertility care where employers often fall short

• Key insight: Learn how retailer–clinic–platform alliances reconfigure fertility care access and pricing.  
• Expert quote: Goldhill - Partnership aims to simplify, lower costs, and clarify fertility treatment choices.  
• Supporting data: $7,000+ IVF medication costs; only 40% of employers offer fertility benefits.  
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

For the millions of Americans who struggle with infertility, treatment costs are one of the largest barriers to care, and why employers can often offer only limited or no assistance with benefits.

Wholesale retailer Costco, healthcare self-pay marketplace Sesame, and global fertility clinic IVI RMA have partnered to provide more affordable end-to-end care for this process. Through a monthly membership, individuals get digital and virtual access to Sesame's reproductive care experts who can help navigate evaluations, diagnostic testing, fertility plans, prescriptions and follow-up support. 

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"The purpose of Sesame is to help those who either lack insurance, have very high deductibles, or have benefits that are more limited. With that in mind, there are areas, and in vitro fertilization is one, where we may see something in between," said David Goldhill, Sesame's co-founder and CEO, who has had two children through this process. With fertility treatments, employees can find themselves with partial or no coverage, or their benefits run out before treatment is successful, he continued, and the partnership is a way to provide a more transparent, cost-effective experience.

If specialized, in-person care is needed, members are connected with an IVI RMA clinic. Memberships start at $119 per month and $99 per month for Costco members, who can seek out further savings by getting their medications through the retailer's pharmacy at its typically-reduced rates. 

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The importance of affordability

The medications used for fertility assistance can be one of the most expensive aspects. For example, those that accompany IVF can cost more than $7,000 per cycle depending on the type prescribed, according to pharmaceutical price-comparison platform GoodRx. The majority of women go through more than one round of IVF to achieve a successful pregnancy, Goldhill pointed out, and if covered at all by their insurance or employer, it is generally only a portion. 

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Four out of 10 employers now offer some type of fertility benefit, according to research from DePaul University, and while some, such as online music platform Spotify, stand out for their unlimited coverage, that's not something all companies can afford. Benefit leaders can put together helpful resources that fill gaps in any fertility offerings they do have, said Goldhill, or, if they have none, stand alone as a way to show support for employees' family-building needs.  Well-rounded resources should include support with the clinical, financial and emotional aspects of the process, he added.  

"There's a lot of uncertainty in the process," Goldhill said. "Part of the goal for Sesame, Costco and the IVI RMA is to make this as clear and simple and trackable as possible, and to deliver a price for care that is meaningfully better than anything else that can be obtained … We're in the business of trying to figure out what's the most sensible thing for you and your family at this particular moment."