A best-in-class employee benefits solution can make an enormous impact on your organization’s recruitment and retention efforts, and it can dramatically reduce healthcare spending costs – but what is too often lost in the conversation is the human impact of employee benefits. A meaningful, well-designed solution can truly change lives. This year, Amazon is being recognized for doing just that.
RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association chooses honorees each year for their outstanding work in the family building community. This year, Amazon is being honored with the Hope Award for Access, which recognizes an organization whose work and actions help increase access to family building options for those living with infertility.
For nearly five years, Amazon and Progyny have partnered to provide U.S. based eligible Amazon employees with a family forming solution that achieves both a positive member experience and positive health outcomes. More than 30,000 Amazon employees in the U.S. have used these benefits, including support for IVF, egg freezing, genetic testing, and more. So, how did Amazon achieve this success and recognition, and how can other organizations follow their example? Let’s look at the key pillars of their family forming benefits solution.
Easy access to the best providers
Gaps and barriers in healthcare have life-altering implications. This is especially true in the world of fertility and family building, where something as simple as geography can play a role in access to care. The level of care and support you can access can make a difference in the tools and resources available to you when starting a family. Amazon overcomes this barrier by providing their U.S. employees with access to the nation’s largest network of fertility specialists, with over 950 vetted providers across more than 650 clinic locations across the U.S.
Traditional carriers require a medical diagnosis of infertility before allowing access to treatment coverage. This automatically excludes LGBTQIA+ families and single parents by choice because these diagnoses often require a period of unprotected heterosexual intercourse. According to Progyny research, this impacts 68% of people with employer-sponsored coverage. Amazon’s benefit through Progyny removes this requirement and provides specialized support and resources for LGBTQIA+ parents, ensuring Amazon’s U.S. based eligible employees have access to the best fertility and family building care regardless of their race, ethnicity, financial means, relationship status, sexual orientation, or gender.
Hear from an Amazon employee in her own words:
“A lot of times, especially with fertility, you would have to somehow prove or show confirmation you’d been trying [to conceive]… [I thought,] would we even be able to receive these benefits? I was very happily surprised!”
Stephanie, who conceived a son with her wife using Amazon’s fertility benefit with Progyny
Extensive fertility support and education
The world of fertility and family building care can be confusing, but with support, navigating infertility and other family building hurdles can be much less daunting. Amazon U.S. employees have access to a dedicated Progyny Patient Care Advocate (PCA) through their Progyny benefit. These PCAs provide guidance and support throughout the entire journey – from helping members understand their treatment options to simplifying the financial complexities and providing emotional support. PCAs educate members on their options and connect their care across different providers and treatment options, meaning members always have a trusted professional they can go to for answers and support.
“Our PCA’s name is Najamia, phenomenal person,” said Stephanie. “She helped walk us through everything. Especially as she started explaining to us how we could utilize [the benefit]. She was super, super helpful in regards to showing us exactly […] what our potential options are for the both of us. And that’s really when we started realizing: wow, our dream was always to do reciprocal IVF and both be a big part of this entire process. That was the most ideal scenario to us.”
Inclusive care supporting unique family building journeys
Understanding the complexity of the U.S. healthcare system and the challenges of supporting an employer of its size and scale, Amazon tapped Progyny to create a fertility and family forming benefit that would meet the diverse needs of Amazon employees.
Through Progyny, Amazon provides access to specifically trained professionals who support members undergoing fertility treatments, members pursuing adoption, single parents by choice, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and members from a wide range of cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds.
“To have this benefit, to be able to create a family – there are no words, honestly,” said Stephanie. “It’s so hard to say thank you a thousand times and still not feel like that’s enough. I knew that Amazon offered phenomenal benefits, but to truly be the reason why we were able to create our family was huge.”
Financial support
Amazon’s fertility and family building benefit with Progyny is designed so that potential fertility services and treatment are bundled together. This enables members to have access to diagnostic testing, medication, tissue storage, IVF, and more while ensuring that every individual can customize their treatment plans with their physicians without having to worry about running out of coverage mid-treatment. It removes the barriers common in dollar-cap benefit models, so members aren’t forced to make cost-based decisions that can compromise their care.
“When we started researching into the cost of reciprocal IVF – I mean, it’s a huge financial burden. So that was not really something we thought we were going to be able to do,” said Stephanie. “Once I joined Amazon and found out about the fertility benefits through Progyny, then we knew it was actually a possibility and could make it happen.”
Because Progyny’s solution is proven to help members have healthier pregnancies and healthier babies, Stephanie – and her family building colleagues at Amazon – could rely on superior outcomes, like a 17% higher pregnancy rate via IVF than the national average and a 27% higher live birth rate.
These outcomes, combined with a fully supported experience and access to quality fertility specialists, are what elevated Amazon’s fertility and family building benefit to a program worthy of acclaim.
“Working with Amazon’s benefits team to deliver a fertility and family building solution that has resulted in new Amazon babies being born every day is nothing short of incredible,” said Pete Anevski, Progyny’s Chief Executive Officer. “Amazon is a prime example of what can be accomplished when a leading employer decides to thoughtfully fill the care gaps left by the U.S. healthcare system and support employees’ dreams of family.”
Hear Stephanie’s whole story on a new episode of Progyny’s This Is Infertility podcast, Transformative Benefits: An Inside Look at an Amazonian’s Family Building Journey.