Desperate couples slugged by soaring IVF prices

INFERTILITY has become a big business with IVF companies listing on the stock exchange and couples desperate for a child are being slugged fees that are rising at five times the inflation rate.

EXCLUSIVE

Parents desperate for a child are being slugged three times the Medicare fee for IVF and nearly twice the fee the AMA says they should be charged as infertility becomes a cash cow.

A News Corp investigation has found massive fee variation and reveals moving to Queensland or Tasmania for fertility treatment could save couples $1600 on an initial round of IVF.

As IVF becomes a $500 million a year industry with key businesses now listed on the stock exchange, the pressure for shareholder returns is seeing vulnerable couples being milked.

Medical fee comparison website Mind the Gap has found out of pocket costs have skyrocketed by up to five times the inflation rate at some clinics in the last 12 months.

Some patients are now left up to $4600 out of pocket for a single IVF cycle after Medicare and health fund rebates.

SURGERY COSTS: What the AMA says you should be paying

IVF is a difficult and expensive process for many who undertake it. Picture istock

News Corp has found the country’s biggest providers IVF Australia, Monash IVF and Genea are charging $9290 and $8150 and $9710 respectively for a first cycle of IVF.

This is up to three times the Medicare fee of $3110 and almost twice the AMA recommended fee of $5315.

These charges compare with Primary IVF which is charging the Medicare fee of just $3110 in its three clinics in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. A fourth clinic will open in Perth soon.

Chair of the IVF Directors Group Dr David Molloy said the AMA had never consulted his group about the fee it set for IVF.

The difference in charges between clinics could be explained by different models of care, he said.

Higher charging clinics provided specialist guided individualised care while cheaper clinics used a nurse and GP model with specialists only involved during embryo transfer, he said.

Virtus Health, which owns IVF Australia, Melbourne IVF, the Fertility Centre and Queensland Fertility Group says its price increases have been at or below inflation.

Out of pocket expenses at the cheaper Fertility Centre clinics had fallen by 30-40 per cent because competition was increasing.

There are cheaper IVF clinics now. Picture: iStock

Genea says while it may appear to have the highest price per cycle, “we’re not the most expensive.”

“In fact, we are one of the most cost effective offerings by providing leading technology and care to support patients to have a family, in the least number of cycles possible.

It says 96 per cent of patients who achieve success do so within three cycles or less and couples can use frozen eggs for subsequent pregnancies so eggs are collected just once.

Monash IVF said its historic price increases have been less than medical inflation.

Part of the reason for increasing out of pocket expenses was the government’s six year freeze on Medicare rebates which have not been indexed to inflation since 2014.

Virtus says this means a 1.5 per cent increase in IVF prices translates into a 3 per cent increase in patient out of pocket expenses and this will compound because Medicare rebates won’t rise again until 2020.

The CEO of the Consumers Health Forum Leanne Wells said the “exorbitant charges imposed on couples desperate to have a baby challenge the notion of decency we expect of doctors”.

“Doctors who demand such excessive fees from patients at a time of anxiety and stress should reflect on the impact that unnecessarily high out of pocket costs have on their patients,” she said.

“High-charging providers may argue that they face very high costs but there is at least one national IVF provider who is bulk billing and accepting the Medicare rebate of $3110,” she said.

Cell injection — artificial insemination. Picture: Ssupplied

RELATED: How pregnancy can affect a woman’s memory

Infertility affects one in six couples. There are more than 70,000 cycles of assisted reproduction treatment delivered in Australia each year resulting in over 13,000 babies.

Increasing competition in the market is affecting the business and the number of IVF cycles actually fell in 2016-17 after peaking in 2015-16.

“The market is saturated, there is as much IVF as is needed,” says Dr Molloy.

Mind the Gap founder James Gillespie says he checked the prices of almost every IVF clinic in the country in February and found many had increased their out of pocket costs by more than twice the 1.9 per cent inflation rate between 2017 and 2018.

Thirty eight of the 39 clinics he surveyed in NSW raised out of pocket expenses by an average four times the inflation rate.

In Victoria 17 of the 18 clinics he surveyed raised out of pocket expenses by an average 5.5 per cent; one clinic kept prices the same as 2017.

Nine clinics in Queensland increased out of pocket expenses by an average five times the inflation ratel 18 kept prices the same and 3 clinics cut prices.

In South Australia all nine IVF clinics increased out pocket by an average 12.8 times the inflation rate.

In Tasmania the three clinics that provided online quotes kept out of pocket expenses at 2017 levels.

“I couldn’t really believe it myself,” Mr Gillespie said about his shock in uncovering such large price rises.

Sandra Dill the spokeswoman for IVF consumer advocacy group Access said the fact that several IVF clinics had cut their prices “speaks volumes”.

“Don’t go to just one clinic, go to more than one and get good information about the types of treatments they offer and compare them with another clinic,” she advised infertile couples.