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Family building benefits: A Q&A with Shelly MacConnell

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“Family-building benefits are here to stay. I expect a continued increase in the number of employers offering these benefits,” says Shelly MacConnell.

Credit: nadezhda1906/Adobe Stock

More companies are beginning to offer fertility and family-building benefits, and workers are noticing, inspiring many women to shift careers and move companies due to better offerings and IVF coverage. While budgets may be tight, the costs associated with turnover are high, and the benefits for culture and engagement are priceless.

Shelly MacConnell, chief strategy office at WIN, a family building benefits solution, says to meet the emerging needs of the workforce, employers should consider the challenges confronted by diverse populations to ensure that the benefit plan meets the needs of all employees trying to expand their families.

We’ve seen a lot of women changing companies in order to get IVF coverage, why do you think that is?

One in six couples around the world experience fertility issues. In combination with the LGBTQIA+ community and single parents by choice, a large segment of the workforce needs help and support to build their families.

IVF coverage and family building benefits (including fertility, fertility preservation, surrogacy and adoption) have become a key differentiator for employers as they look to attract and retain talent.

As you mentioned, people are changing jobs to access these benefits. And it’s not limited to women. The interest in coverage cuts across genders, singles and families, geographies, incomes and cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Employees perceive family building benefits as an indicator that an employer offers a culture that is family friendly and supports diversity, equity and inclusion.

What are the costs of offering fertility benefits to workers from an employer’s perspective?

Fertility treatment costs vary based on complexity as well as where the treatment is provided. The cost for IVF can range from $12,000 – $30,000 and typically people need more than one cycle of IVF before becoming pregnant.

While that cost may be daunting, offering managed fertility benefits with companies can actually save employers money. When employees have no coverage, they are more likely to make treatment decisions that can lead to negative and costly health outcomes. Nurses help guide patients through the process, find the right provider for their unique needs, and help them to find the most effective course of treatment while minimizing the chances for multiple births. All in all, services like these can avert the expense (and lost productivity) related to ineffective treatment and the medical costs for multiples with a higher likelihood of compromised health, NICU stays, and development issues which can last through age 5 and beyond.

Fertility treatment can be physically, emotionally and financially draining for employees, so having a provider that supports people through this process with personalized care is incredibly valuable.

What industries are offering the best benefits for families from your experience? In other words, are companies in a certain sector most often including family-building benefits in their perks packages?

In the past, the tech industry has led the U.S. in the pervasiveness and richness of family building benefits and other industries such as financial and professional services and life sciences were close followers. But that has changed. Employers across all industries, sizes and industries are embracing this benefit as a way to support employees and as a way to compete in the market for talent.

Why do you think it is important for companies to cover family-building benefits?

Family building benefits have become a business imperative. As the largest generations have entered the workforce and want to grow and build their families, employers need to meet this demand as a requirement to engage and retain top talent.

We also know that 90% of US CEOs have named Diversity, Equity & Inclusion as a top business priority. Family building benefits are by definition a DEI solution.

The absence of fertility coverage creates and perpetuates health inequity and financial inequity for the most underserved populations. To start, women bear the burden of most family building expenses while often already struggling with a wage gap. This is exacerbated for women of color; black women struggle with infertility at a rate more than 50% higher than white women and seek care nearly half as often. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community require fertility assistance to have biological children and without inclusive coverage, the burden of cost falls only to them. And across all genders, it is an equity issue of affordability and accessibility because pay levels may dictate whether individuals are able to obtain the care needed to have children.

What are the most common family-building services that companies offer? Also, what do you see as being used the most?

Nearly 2/3 of all large employers now offer fertility coverage. Fertility benefits are the most common family building service that employers offer and that employees utilize.

To meet the emerging needs of the workforce, employers are also considering the challenges confronted by diverse populations to ensure that the benefit plan meets the needs of all employees trying to expand their families. As a result, we see incredible growth in the other aspects of family building benefits.

The LGBTQIA+ community faces unique challenges to growing families and an inclusive benefit program considers those needs and builds a benefit policy accordingly. For example, more employers are covering procedures such as Reciprocal IVF where one female partner can provide the egg and the other carries the pregnancy. Another example is the growth in coverage for surrogacy which is the only way for male intended parents to have a biological child.

In addition, interest in fertility preservation (egg and sperm freezing) has been growing and more employers are responding by making this benefit available for those that want to preserve their fertility for the future.

Related: Why family-building benefits are necessary for modern employer coverage

Do you think that family-building benefits like IVF will become more commonplace and expected, or will it still be rare?

Family-building benefits are here to stay. I expect a continued increase in the number of employers offering these benefits, enhanced richness of the benefit provided, and expansion of the population eligible for these benefits. Ultimately, I expect that these benefits will become the norm – offered by all employers and accessible by all employees.

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