IVF clinics must give full cost of treatment before therapy begins
(cz) IVF clinics will have to give their patients full details of all likely treatment costs before they start to provide it, under regulations announced yesterday by the Government’s fertility watchdog.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will insist that clinics provide costed plans after every early consultation, as a condition of licensing them. The measures are designed to protect the 70 per cent of IVF patients who pay an average of about £3,500 for private therapy, after complaints that they incur unexpected fees after treatment begins.
Charges for drugs and diagnostic tests, for some of which there is little evidence showing them to be effective, can increase the total cost of a cycle of IVF to more than £8,000. Many patients, however, are told only about the basic costs of therapy when they agree to start, and later feel obliged to pay the extra fees as they have already spent thousands of pounds.
The HFEA decision to make costed treatment plans mandatory follows a survey of Fertility Views, the regulator’s advisory panel, which is made up of 1,000 current and former IVF patients. It found that 85 per cent had paid for their own treatment, yet only 20 per cent of these were given a costed plan at the outset. Others were shown a general price list, or were told verbally about likely costs. more…
From: »The Times«