Why Self-Insured Employers Care About IVF Outcomes

A triplet birth in the United States costs roughly $577,000. A twin birth runs about $155,000. For a self-insured employer, that cost hits the bottom line directly.

In this clip from our episode “Making Fertility Benefits An Employer Priority”, host David E. Williams and David Stern, CEO of Kindbody, break down how Kindbody puts skin in the game with employers through contractual guarantees on multiple birth rates, miscarriage rates, and time to care.

Listen to the full episode here

🎙️⚕️ABOUT DAVID STERN
David Stern has over 30 years of women's health experience with a career focused primarily on the fertility industry. Most recently he served as CEO of Boston IVF, one of the largest IVF center networks in the United States, which became part of IVIRMA Global, the largest fertility group in the world, in 2024. Prior to that he was CEO of Symbiomix Therapeutics, leading the company from development stage through commercial launch before its acquisition by Lupin Pharmaceuticals in 2017. He has held executive roles at Merck Serono as SVP and Head of the Global Fertility Business Franchise, and has built commercial teams and partnerships at Celmatix, Ohana, and OvaScience. He also served on the board of California Cryobank and began his career in women's health at Organon Pharmaceutics. He holds an MBA from the F.W. Olin School of Business at Babson College and a BS in Biology from Brandeis University.

🎙️⚕️ABOUT HEALTH BIZ PODCAST
HealthBiz is a CareTalk podcast that delivers in-depth interviews on healthcare business, technology, and policy with entrepreneurs and CEOs. Host David E. Williams — president of the healthcare strategy consulting boutique Health Business Group — is also a board member, investor in private healthcare companies, and author of the Health Business Blog. Known for his strategic insights and sharp humor, David offers a refreshing break from the usual healthcare industry BS.

Need a Strategy Partner?
For over 20 years, Health Business Group has helped healthcare software companies, tech-enabled services businesses, life sciences companies, and payers make smarter strategic decisions. Led by podcast host David Williams, the firm advises clients on sharpening AI positioning, entering new segments, and building commercial strategies for value-based care. See examples of our work at healthbusinessgroup.com/

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Transcript

David Williams: 0:08

So I know that employers are interested in outcomes and cost transparency, and those are general sort of terms, but what does it mean in your space? You started off, I think, with some talking about like implementation rate, and there-- I'm sure there's a number of other key, uh, metrics. But how, how are you being held accountable these days?

David Stern: 0:27

We have service level agreements, and we put into our contracts a certain amount of… For example, you used the example of multiple births. Just to give you a couple figures, a triplet in the United States is about five hundred and seventy-seven thousand dollars. A twin is a hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars. That actually data is probably ten years old, so it's probably grown even more. If you're a self-insured employer, that cost is hitting your bottom line. And so we have in our contracts a multiple birth rate that says we will guarantee below a certain percentage, usually five percent or below. We have miscarriage, uh, rates where we have lower miscarriages because we're putting back tested embryos, so there's a lower risk of miscarriage. We look at, uh, how long does it take for a patient or an employee to get in to see a provider. So these are ways that we offer, um, essentially, you know, skin in the game for us because if we don't hit these agreed-upon parameters, then we give discounts back to the employers. But what they're really concerned about is the risk of the multiple birth because that can really be devastating to them as a self-insured company. Uh, and they wanna make sure that they're having good outcomes. And so success rates in terms of what is a live birth rate is also important to them because they don't want someone-- I-infertility is a hamster wheel. You're going around in circles. It can be very frustrating. It's very emotional. Um, you know, there's time off of work and those type of things. So the burden, there's emotional burden. So to make it easier for the patient, we have care coordinators. We're actually working with artificial intelligence now to streamline the triage and to make it quicker and easier for patients to get in to see a provider and to make sure that we collect information so that they know, the provider knows why this patient is coming in, and you don't have to waste a lot of time, um, when you do that first initial visit