Cigna has tapped Progyny as it looks to enhance access to benefits for fertility and family planning services.
The health insurer announced on Monday that the partnership will make Progyny's services available to more employers. The program covers a patient's full fertility journey, the company said, beginning with pre-conception planning and continuing through post-partum care needs.
The benefits also include coverage options for family-building services like surrogacy or adoption, Cigna said.
The new offering will be made available to most of Cigna's self-funded employer clients beginning this fall, according to an announcement.
“Employers understand that the road to parenthood can be challenging physically, emotionally, and financially, and they want to support their colleagues in reaching their family-building goals,” said Heather Dlugolenski, senior vice president and U.S. employer strategy officer for Cigna Healthcare, in a press release.
“Our newest offering helps make best-in-class, personalized care accessible and equitable for a wider range of employers while helping people achieve healthy pregnancies, babies, and families," Dlugolenski said.
Cigna said in the announcement that it's generally been a challenge for employers to offer comprehensive fertility benefits. However, at the same time, offerings like this one have been shown to drive employee interest and retention.
For example, 61% of millennials say that having fertility and family planning benefits available improves their loyalty to their employer while 70% said they would switch jobs to secure such benefits, Cigna said.
Progyny's Smart Cycle platform allows employers to build benefits packages that are based around fertility cycles, rather than financial thresholds, according to the announcement, and enables them to pick from a suite of services to offer to employees.