IVF and Medicare

IVFMedicare and the Medicare Safety Net provides substantial financial support for people who need fertility treatment, and protects you from very large medical bills. Make sure you are registered with Medicare before you start any fertility treatment.

The majority of fertility treatment costs are covered by Medicare, and if you have private health insurance your out of pocket costs may be further reduced.

Medicare provides a rebate for Australians who incur out-of-pocket costs for out-of-hospital services (including GP and specialist appointments, and diagnostic tests). The Medicare Safety Net provides an additional capped rebate when those costs go over an annual threshold, currently $2,093 or $668 for concession cardholders and families eligible for Family Tax Benefit Part A. Your Medicare Safety Net entitlement begins at the start of each calendar year.

As well as IVF, most ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) treatments receive some level of Medicare rebate, including IUI (intra-uterine insemination), Frozen Embryo Transfer, and ICSI

These rebates are not means tested and are available to all holders of a current Medicare card. There are no limits to the amount you can claim.

What things are not covered by Medicare?

Your Medicare Safety Net entitlement does not include hospital or day surgery related services, such as egg collection, but your private health fund may cover this cost. It also doesn’t reimburse for items without a Medicare item number, such as testicular biopsy.

The cost of some drugs, as well as cryostorage, will not receive a Medicare rebate.

Fertility Medicines

Under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) each fertility medication incurs a co-payment of $39.90 or $6.40 if you have a concession card.

Each PBS patient co-payment will count towards your PBS Safety Net record. We estimate, on average, this will mean an additional $200 for a patient undergoing fertility treatment.

This is not a QFG cost, it is a government initiated co-payment associated with all fertility medications that came into effect on 1 July 2015.

Once you are ready to start treatment your fertility specialist will give you a prescription for the fertility medicines and you will need to collect the medicines from a pharmacy.  At Queensland Fertility Group we understand how important the ability to collect your medicines from our clinic is and for your convenience we have options to facilitate this for you.

Please ask any of our patient support team for more information.

Referrals

To claim any Medicare rebate, you need a current referral from your GP (valid for 12 months) or specialist gynaecologist/obstetrician (valid for 3 months).

More Information

For more information, and to register your details with Medicare, visit www.medicareaustralia.gov.au