Fertility Benefits for Active-Duty Service Members
Marines
and their spouses attend the quarterly Headquarters and Support Battalion baby
shower on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, CA, February 21, 2018. (Lance Corporal
Megan Roses/Marine Corps)
Posted: April 16, 2024 -- Military.com | By Amanda
Miller
Published April
15, 2024
More Tricare beneficiaries
became eligible for fertility treatments in 2024, thanks to a new Department of
Defense (DoD) policy that expanded the benefit to unmarried service
members and those needing donated eggs or sperm. Prior to the new policy dated
March 8, 2024, the DoD provided fertility treatments -- also referred to as
assisted reproductive technology (ART) -- only to certain married
service members, and the DoD prohibited eggs or sperm donated by a 3rdparty, effectively barring same-sex couples from the benefit.
Here's
who qualifies and what to expect:
Who
Qualifies
Unlike
in the civilian world, where many employers offer fertility benefits as a perk,
in the military, a service member's infertility must stem from a
service-connected injury or illness. Service members do not have to prove they
tried to conceive but were unable to. Instead, the DOD determines medical need
based on the service member's illness or injury that was received "while
on active duty that led to the loss of their ability to procreate without the
use of ART," according to the policy.
"This
includes, but is not limited to, those suffering neurological, physiological,
or anatomical injuries." Furthermore, according to the policy, a service
member's injury or illness must rate as "Category II" or
"Category III," rendering the individual likely to medically
separate. A spouse, a Tricare-enrolled unmarried partner
or a Tricare-enrolled, "3rd-party gestational carrier" --
aka "a surrogate" -- may be covered for treatment when the service
member's infertility prevents conception.
Covered
Services
·
ART
services under Tricare fall outside the basic offering, instead categorized as
a Supplemental Health Care Program. Services include:
·
Sperm
retrieval
·
Egg
retrieval
·
In-vitro
fertilization (IVF)
·
Intrauterine
insemination (IUI)
·
Blastocyst
implantation
·
Cryopreservation
and storage of embryos
Patients
must receive prior authorization for every IUI, gamete (sperm or egg)
retrieval, embryo transfer or IVF cycle. Donated gametes or embryos are allowed
but must be acquired at the service member's expense, though "DoD will cost
share the cost of gamete cryopreservation and/or storage" up until the
service member leaves the military.
Surrogates
who are enrolled in Tricare may participate, but the DOD prohibits their being
paid for doing so, with the possible exception of a waiver for travel. The DoD
limits the number of attempts it will cover of a given treatment, such as up to
6 egg retrieval attempts and three completed IVF cycles.
Where
to Receive Treatment
The
DoD prefers that service members receive covered fertility treatments at a
military hospital, and "if possible," private-sector care with
Tricare network providers is also covered. The military hospitals offering the
services include:
·
Walter
Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland
·
Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu
·
Womack
Army Medical Center, Fort
Liberty, North Carolina
·
Madigan
Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
·
Brooke
Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
·
Naval
Medical Center San Diego
·
Naval
Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia
·
Wright-Patterson
Medical Center, Ohio
Managing
Your Benefit
Timing matters during fertility treatments, and while not required, some service members may receive help managing their fertility benefit efficiently. The benefit company WIN provides benefit management for the Navy's Aviatrix Project for female naval aviators and for members of the Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard.
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