Doctors weigh in on a new partnership between Costco, Sesame, and IVI RMA that offers cheaper, more seamless fertility care, like IVF, to Costco members.
A new partnership between Costco , Sesame , and IVI RMA aims to lower some of the major barriers Americans face when seeking fertility treatment. On Monday, the companies announced that for $99 a month with a Costco membership , you can meet virtually with a doctor of your choosing on the Sesame platform for a fertility intake and diagnostic workup.
That means bypassing often months-long wait times to get an appointment with a specialist. From there, Sesame links you with an IVI RMA clinic in your area—over 85% of them are within 25 miles of a Costco—to coordinate treatments like IVF or IUI , at reduced pricing, with drugs also discounted via Costco’s specialty pharmacy. Anything that lessens the steep sticker price of IVF is a big win, Brian Levine, MD, founding partner and practice director of CCRM Fertility of New York, tells SELF. Currently, there is a huge gap between the number of people who may seek out fertility treatment in the US—for example, those with infertility or recurrent miscarriage, and LGBTQ+ folks—and those who can access it. “The largest barrier when it comes to access is undeniably cost and affordability,” Dr. Levine says. IVF can be upward of $5,000 or $6,000 with insurance, and as much as $30,000 without, if you factor in the related lab work, services, and medications. Fewer than half of states have a mandate requiring private insurers to cover fertility care. There’s also the issue of finding that care, even if you can afford it. A 2023 study suggests demand upward of 2 million annual in IVF cycles in the US, which would require the mere 1,250 practicing reproductive endocrinologists in the US to do roughly seven times as many cycles as they’re currently completing. The fact that many Costco members live close to an IVI RMA clinic is key, given that “fertility patients also have to undergo regular appointments, as many as six within a two-week span,” Dr. Levine says. “There’s also still a lack of awareness around fertility timelines, which means some patients don’t seek care until they get older, and their options are more limited,” Lisa Van Dolah, CEO of Ivy Fertility, tells SELF. This kind of large public partnership could help get the convo started sooner. All in, Sesame estimates a cost savings of around $5,500 to $10,000 per IVF cycle, or approximately 27% savings on the full cost of IVF in northern California, for reference. The biggest chunk of that comes from the reduction in the drug prices, which shaves off anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per cycle from the amount you might pay as a self-pay patient elsewhere, and even with some insurance plans, as the medications are often sneakily excluded from coverage. These discounts become even more significant when you consider that many people seeking fertility care have to undergo multiple IVF cycles to conceive. Via Costco’s offering, the original Sesame provider is also available throughout the treatment process to help patients navigate the labs, medications, and continued appointments—which is a key benefit to Sesame co-founder and CEO David Goldhill, who is the father of four children conceived via IVF. “As someone who went through IVF, I know there can be a lot of questions along the way—there’s quite a bit of confusion, it’s a very disaggregated medical service, in part because it isn’t always governed by insurance. So, a big part of what we’re bringing to this is making it more accessible by making it more coordinated and patient-first.” Of course, the partnership requires customers receive care through IVI RMA, which may not be the right clinic for every patient, Dr. Levine notes. “Not every archetype of patient aligns with a clinic’s mission. For example, some clinics are much more aligned with LGBTQ+ initiatives, and a single father by choice, a single mother by choice, or a gay male or gay female may not feel comfortable in a waiting room full of women,” he says. Still, Dr. Levine is excited to see this kind of initiative come out of such a popular nationwide company. “I hope that this is just the start of businesses recognizing that associating with fertility care is an opportunity to talk about family building, which is a conversation that spans multiple different populations, from people dealing with infertility, to people who can’t stay pregnant, and those going through cancer treatment,” he says. “I hope other organizations take as strong of a stance, as important of a stance as Costco’s doing here.” Related: I Have a Child, and Now I Can’t Seem to Have Another I Could Not Goop My Way Out of Infertility I Have ‘Silent’ Endometriosis—and It’s More Common Than You’d Think Get more of SELF’s great service journalism delivered right to your inbox.
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