$8,200 up front

Well I talked to the financial lady at the RE today, and she said for IVF you have to prepay $8,200 prior to your first appointment (which for us is June 28). They are charging $1,200 for all the tests we are having done that day, $1,000 for the bloodwork/ultrasounds, and $6,000 for the egg retrieval and transfer (and embryology in between). ICSI and other "optional" procedures are additional costs. I figured we'd pay the $1,200 now and the other costs closer to the egg retrieval, but she said no. If we do a second ivf later on (I hope not; I'd love the first try to be successful!), we wouldn't have the testing so we'd pay $7,000 up front that time. She said my insurance will pay for the testing and bloodwork and ultrasounds so we'll get most of that money back (less our $10 copays) so likely we'll get about $2,100 back. I think our total cost (if we don't need ICSI or assisted hatching or anything like that) will be about $6,200 including the cost of meds (which are thousands and thankfully mostly are covered by our insurance). We have a choice of insurance at the university where I teach, and I purposefully picked the HMO instead of Blue Shield which most people select because this HMO does pay for some fertility stuff whereas BS does not. One reassuring thing is Denise said usually you are paying this bill two months before the egg retieval. Whew...that was just what I was hoping (for a late August retrieval date). Alice Ann's "3 month" estimate yesterday was not what I wanted to hear, so hearing this today confirms that there is a chance I could start the Lupron early August and have most of the stimming done before school starts on August 27. We'll find out for sure on June 28, but that's what I am going to ask for.