Any contract, except contracts providing supplemental coverage to medicare or other governmental programs, between a subscriber and the corporation under an individual or group hospital service plan which is delivered, issued for delivery or renewed in the commonwealth while this provision is effective and which provides pregnancy-related benefits shall provide as a benefit for all individual subscribers or members within the commonwealth and all group members having a principal place of employment within the commonwealth, to the same extent that benefits are provided for other pregnancy-related procedures, coverage for medically necessary expenses of diagnosis and treatment of infertility. Said infertility benefits shall meet all other terms and conditions of the subscriber certificate. For purposes of this section, ‘infertility’ shall mean the condition of an individual who is unable to conceive or produce conception during a period of 1 year if the female is age 35 or younger or during a period of 6 months if the female is over the age of 35. For purposes of meeting the criteria for infertility in this section, if a person conceives but is unable to carry that pregnancy to live birth, the period of time she attempted to conceive prior to achieving that pregnancy shall be included in the calculation of the 1 year or 6 month period, as applicable.
Expands the existing infertility mandate to require coverage for women over age 35 who are unable to conceive for at least 6 months. Length of time necessary for women under age 35 remains at 1 year. This section applies to plans offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. If a woman conceives but is unable to carry the pregnancy to live birth, the time she attempted to conceive prior to that pregnancy is to be included in the 1 year or 6 month calculation.
M.G.L. Chatper 176A, section 8K; added by section 2 of Chapter 394 of the Acts of 1987; last amended by section 16 of Chapter 288 of the Acts of 2010