Office of Personnel Management Expands Fertility Coverage
Oct 13, 2022
By: ASRM
Origin: ASRM Bulletin
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released the Federal Benefits Open Season information for the 2023 plan year, expanding coverage for family building for federal beneficiaries and their family members. All federal insurance carriers will provide coverage for standard fertility preservation procedures for persons facing the possibility of iatrogenic infertility, including infertility associated with medical and surgical gender transition treatment. Additionally, four new plan options will provide ART within their Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) benefits package for a total of 18 plan options in 2023, and one new plan option will provide a non-FEHB benefit for discounted Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) procedures for 2023. This is incredible progress for federal beneficiaries and their families.
In August, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D- IL) and Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA -11) sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) asking them to expand Federal medical coverage to include ART. In total, 24 House and Senate Members of Congress signed on to support this change.
In July, ASRM staff met with Jon Foley, Senior Advisor to the Director, Office of the Director, OPM, and other stakeholders, about expanding coverage for IVF for Federal employees and their dependents. In February 2020, ARSM staff and a group of stakeholders met with OPM about fertility preservation.
ASRM will continue to advocate for OPM to require all insurance carriers to cover ART for federal beneficiaries and their families. OPM sets the policies and encourages insurance carriers to expand benefits for the federal workforce based on several factors, including what other plans are offering and what states are mandating coverage. We look forward to building on the progress of this announcement.