Aetna to Offer Infertility Treatment as Option

Aetna US Healthcare, criticized for saying it would stop covering the most advanced infertility treatments, said it will continue to offer that coverage, but only as an option. Aetna, the nation’s largest health insurer and a pioneer in covering infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, had announced that it intended to eliminate the benefits after April 1. The benefits will now still be available, but only to employers who currently have them and wish to extend them beyond April 1, and to employers who wish to purchase them as an optional rider to the base plan. The option would cost extra, but how much extra has not been decided, an Aetna spokeswoman said. Company executives predicted that the benefit reduction will affect few plan members. Aetna US Healthcare, with headquarters in Blue Bell, Pa., and Middletown, Conn., is a unit of Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna.