HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 4214        FILED ON: 3/20/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3889

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act preventing discrimination in infertility coverage..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.  Section 47H of chapter 175 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following paragraph:-

Fertility treatment coverage shall not be denied based on a women’s age or inherent fertility potential alone.  Fertility treatment coverage shall be based on the patient’s medical safety and the clinical expertise of the treating Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist who is professionally trained regarding infertility treatment options and patient counseling relative to the benefits and risks of Assisted Reproductive technologies, treatments and procedures.  Physicians and patients shall be free to choose assisted reproductive technologies which shall include in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and embryonic assisted hatching and be covered by insurers.  Such coverage shall prohibit arbitrary limits placed by insurance providers on the number of attempts of infertility treatments and procedures.  Insurance provided may not use specific medical inclusion guidelines to deny infertility coverage such as Ovarian Reserve Testing including, but not limited to Clomid Challenge testing.  Insurers shall be prohibited from using the words “naturally infertile” to exclude coverage for certain infertility treatments including donor egg procedures.  Insurers shall be required to simplify the infertility coverage approval processes to minimize delays in treatments sought by patients and their treating physicians.  Insurance providers shall be prohibited from setting any time limit provision with regards to coverage for fertility treatments among patients who have demonstrated recurrent pregnancy loss and are clinically diagnosed with reproductive failure.  Insurance providers shall be prohibited from the practice of denying single women or lesbian couples from infertility coverage unless they have demonstrated a certain number of MD supervised intrauterine inseminations before being diagnosed as infertile.  The same clinical criteria number of MD supervised intrauterine inseminations before being diagnosed as infertile.  The same clinical criteria that apply to heterosexual couples shall apply to single women or lesbian couples in determining a diagnosis of infertility.