Ep. 124: How to Pay for Fertility Awareness Education -- Affordable NFP!
May 17, 2024Episode 124
How can I afford fertility awareness education? Does my insurance cover it? Are there more affordable methods? Can I get a fertility awareness scholarship? How can I pay for NFP (natural family planning)? This episode gives practical suggestions to how to pay for your fertility education (including insurance specifics and options for those who don't have insurance coverage), because we believe every woman deserve access to fertility education and natural family planning.
NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences.
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This podcast is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider regarding a medical condition. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately. Neither Woven nor its staff, nor any contributor to this podcast, makes any representations, express or implied, with respect to the information provided herein or to its use.
How can I afford fertility awareness education? Does my insurance cover it? Are there more affordable methods? Can I get a fertility awareness scholarship? How can I pay for NFP (natural family planning)? This episode gives practical suggestions to how to pay for your fertility education (including insurance specifics and options for those who don't have insurance coverage), because we believe every woman deserve access to fertility education and natural family planning.
NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences.
Would you take a moment and give us a 5 star review? Thanks!
This podcast is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider regarding a medical condition. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately. Neither Woven nor its staff, nor any contributor to this podcast, makes any representations, express or implied, with respect to the information provided herein or to its use.
Caitlin:
Welcome to the Woven Well Podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Estes. I'm a certified fertility care practitioner with a master of divinity degree. Each episode will cover a topic that helps educate and empower you and your fertility while honoring the deep connection your fertility has with your faith. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast. Financial constraints can be a hindrance in many areas of life. Moving and buying a home are so expensive right now. The decision to have another child getting a better car or even making the choice to stop hormonal contraception, affordable or free access to hormonal contraception is getting easier and easier. This has been hard fought for by many groups over the years. Many forms of insurance cover a prescription for the pill or insertion of an IUD at no cost to the woman. There are states that allow a pharmacist to prescribe birth control without even going to a doctor's office beforehand. If that's a financial barrier, and there are Planned Parenthood or similar locations that will provide birth control options on the spot or offer financial assistance when possible. With all those things in mind, it makes it challenging for women in financially tight seasons of life to consider any other version. Why choose to pay for a method of natural family planning when you can get completely free access to pregnancy prevention? This is why I wanted to provide today's episode. Many women are out there weighing the pros and cons of their options and trying to find realistic solutions to make fertility awareness methods or forms of natural family planning work for them. The first thing I want to highlight is the type of cost involved. I'm not going to go into great detail here because we have other episodes that cover it explicitly, but while hormonal contraception may be free, it doesn't come without a cost. Many forms of hormonal contraception are class one carcinogens up there with asbestos and formaldehyde, okay? There are very real dangers involved, including blood clots and strokes. For women who don't even have a prior history, the most common side effects include loss of libido, weight changes, nausea, migraines, mood changes, unusual bleeding, and gastrointestinal symptoms. There are real costs associated with these free options, and for many women, they aren't worth the price. So how can we make fertility awareness methods more affordable? Well, first of all, let's get insurance to pay for it. When the Affordable Care Act required the coverage of contraception, it also paved the way for fertility awareness methods, which were actually added in 2016. That's right. Fertility awareness methods were included in the Affordable Care Act. Since then, there have been some legal struggles, and at the time of this recording, it's still being settled, but I do feel that we're moving toward the point that fertility awareness will be covered by all major insurance plans for now. You can check with your specific insurance company to see if it's covered, but they'll want specifics too, like a CPT code and a diagnosis code. So here are a few options. Get out a pen and paper or open your notes app because I'm about to give you the details. You can try CPT code H 1010 with diagnosis code Z 30. 02 if you're avoiding pregnancy. Or if you're trying to conceive a pregnancy, then try diagnosis code Z 31.61 , and you can also try CPT code 99404. Sometimes one works better than the other, depending on the insurance. So I've personally had clients receive reimbursements from their insurance providers after sending in an itemized invoice for their education sessions. So I know it can work even in very recent years. Now, if your insurance provider doesn't happen to cover it, but you have an HSA or FSA account, I've got even better news. Health Saving Accounts and flexible spending accounts can be used to pay for 100% of fertility awareness education. This includes group sessions, one-on-one personal education sessions, and resources. Don't have an HSA or FSA yourself, but your spouse does? No problem. You're allowed to pay for these services on behalf of your spouse as well. Even a dependent. So if you're interested in teaching your teenage daughter about fertility awareness and cycle tracking , that can be covered too. So it's worth a phone call to your insurance company to find out exactly what resources you already have available to you. And if they give you pushback, ask what's missing in order for it to be covered. Find out details because sometimes it's something very simple that you already have access to and you just need to provide it to them. Hopefully this ongoing court case will also come to a conclusion very soon and provide even more support to women and families seeking fertility awareness education. Until then, are there any other options? Well, we talk a lot about natural fertility here on Woven Well, but we also talk about the deep connection between our fertility and our faith. There are many women who choose fertility awareness, not just because of the health risks of alternatives, but because of the religious or ethical concerns with its use. There are women who are deeply troubled by hormonal contraceptions thinning of the uterine lining and limiting of cervical mucus, which could prevent an already fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. There are those who are hesitant about stripping away the natural functioning of our bodies in a way that they were designed by God to function. They'd rather not stop a natural function, but work with it to plan their families. There are couples who are actively seeking to find God in this intimate area of their lives, and they feel that fertility awareness education can help them be more in tune with how God created them, what God intended, and even the creation of early life. For these reasons, it's possible that your church may want to support your education as well. Some churches actually have funds set aside for issues related to things like this , but often they may not be under the title of Family Planning. They could be, but instead they could use terms like family life, sanctity of life, or marriage-related funds. Once again, I can say that I have had several clients whose churches have offered to pay for or at least partially pay for their Creighton education, which is what we teach at Woven Natural Fertility Care. Often the first step is just asking. So if you don't think that your church or parish has funds like this set aside, then you don't have to go in asking about these funds specifically. That's fine. But schedule a time to sit down with your pastor for a chat and explain what the education is and why you want to pursue it. Explain your concerns , talk through your reasoning, get their feedback, and then ask if there's any financial assistance possible, even if they've never thought to set aside such funds before. Your conversation may be what begins that process, which will not only benefit you, but many others to come after you if neither insurance nor your church are successful for you. And there's always the possibility of seeking a scholarship. So I've actually had a church contact me and say that they'd like to cover education for anyone in their congregation who reached out. There are nonprofits out there who specifically want to make fertility awareness education more available so you can reach out to groups like Natural Womanhood who have scholarship funds available to help women get started learning fertility awareness. What about pregnancy resource centers? They are often great places to find support resources and options for financial assistance and family planning. While they may also have access to birth control, they may be just as willing to help you find ways to receive fertility education. There are nonprofits , fertility organizations, and even some restorative reproductive health offices who may be willing to cover the cost of your education. There are also fun kind of outside the box ways to get a scholarship. Why not contact the fertility practitioner you're interested in learning from and plan a group event to kick off the education? You could invite the community or your church and handle all the logistics, and then they'll show up and educate and cover the cost of your first one-on-one session, or maybe even your supply fees. There are ways to make this possible. I believe that every woman deserves access to fertility education, and I hope that even more ways become available in the years to come, but we have options right now. So here's a quick reminder of the possibilities we talked about today. Insurance reimbursements, HSA or FSA coverage, church funding scholarships or working directly with your educator. It's not nearly as easy to get access to fertility education as it is birth control, but it's an investment in your health and your family and yourself that you'll never regret making. And hopefully our investment now will pay off greatly in our culture and in the generations to come. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the medical services of restorative reproductive medical providers like those trained in NaProTechnology, they're covered by insurance too, even if you're being treated for infertility. And that's good news for everyone. If you found today's episode helpful, please take two seconds to give us a five-star review on whatever platform you use to listen. It makes such a difference for you to give us a five-star review, and I really and truly appreciate it. As always, thanks for listening As we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.