ARC Service Descriptions

Bundled Treatments

At ARC, our goal is to help your employees have a baby. This is why ARC has carefully selected and bundled together the most cost-effective, evidence-based fertility and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. Each of the ARC Treatment Packages is based on the highest standards of medical excellence and is optimized to provide the best chances for a healthy singleton baby. Our clients enjoy a 10-50% savings with bundles.

The packages are comprehensive for any type of fertility care, including all necessary clinical, pharmaceutical, laboratory, procedural, and genetic testing services. Our treatment packages are available to everyone – same-sex couples, people who are not in a relationship, and people from diverse cultural backgrounds. The range of treatments and eligibility criteria are flexible so they can be determined by the employer.

The ARC One-cycle Plus package encourages single embryo transfer on the first cycle because it can be followed by an additional frozen embryo transfer cycle if a live birth does not result. This approach results in healthier singleton babies. ARC also has Two-cycle Plus and Three-cycle Plus packages which give employees, respectively, up to 4 or 6 embryo transfers and up to an 80 to 90 percent chance of a healthy baby.

ARC also provides intrauterine insemination (IUI), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and other male-focused treatment; egg and embryo freezing; sperm and egg donors and surrogacy (gestational carriers); frozen egg bank and embryo donation.

ARC Pharmacy Plan

The ARC^® Pharmacy Plan provides easy access to discounted fertility medications. We offer the convenience of including the cost of medications along with the employee’s discounted ARC Treatment package.

ARC works with the nation’s top mail-order specialty pharmacies. Our partners provide high-quality patient services, including:

• Free reliable express home delivery service
• Pharmacists specialized in fertility therapies

How The ARC^® Pharmacy Plan works

The employee’s doctor sends her prescription to ARC. An ARC Patient Services member contacts the employee soon after to discuss the cost of and give a price quote for the fertility medications. After sources of payment for the clinical services and pharmaceutical products are finalized, the prescription is sent to the pharmacy. The pharmacy mails the fertility medications to the employee in a secure and confidential package overnight, with convenient usage instructions and 24/7 clinician access.

Customer Love

“Adding the ARC Pharmacy Plan was a last-minute decision, but it was handled so quickly that it didn’t affect my cycle. I appreciate the promptness.” – Ginger D.

“…communication with the clinics, ordering of medicines – everything from the simple application process was all taken care of so that all we had to worry about was being there and going through the IVF process.” – Campbell R.

What if the employer subsidy does not cover the entire cost of treatment?

Some patients may need treatment that costs more than the subsidy provided by their employer. In these situations, the employee can pay the balance by check or credit card, or they can take advantage of the ARC^® Fertility Financing Program that gives the employee the opportunity to obtain an unsecured loan for the additional amount needed beyond the employer subsidy. The financing process is quick and easy. Loans are made based on lending criteria established by ARC’s multiple lenders. ARC’s Concierge Fertility Team provides comprehensive information, support, and expertise to help the employee obtain the necessary funds for treatment.

Personalized Support

Concierge Fertility Specialists provide personalized consultation and support and coordinate access to treatment with the employee’s health care providers.

In addition to our highly personal concierge services, we also offer a digital platform with personalized mobile educational and support tools, created through our 23 years’ experience as an industry leader.

The resources include:

• FertilityNow App
• Virtual Visits with Telehealth
• Affordability Estimator
• ARC Fertility Calculator
• ARC Infertility Stress Test

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

IVF is one of the most common forms of fertility treatments. It involves using fertility drugs to stimulate the development of multiple eggs over about 10 days. The eggs are then retrieved from the woman’s ovaries through a simple surgical procedure and fertilized with sperm. After fertilization, the embryos grow for three to five days in the laboratory before one or more is placed back into the woman’s uterus. Eggs can also be removed and frozen to be used at a later time

Egg Freezing

As a woman ages the number and quality of her eggs declines, making it challenging to become pregnant and/or have a successful pregnancy. Therefore, more and more women are choosing to do egg freezing as a way to preserve their fertility until they find the right partner or are ready to start building a family.

The Process
Women must take hormones for an average of 10 to 12 days, stimulating the ovaries to develop as many mature eggs as possible. For younger women (< age 35) doctors recommend women freeze 15-20 eggs if possible. A minor surgical procedure with anesthesia is required to retrieve the eggs, and it’s important to know that the ovarian stimulation drugs can sometimes have side effects.

The number of eggs and egg quality decline with age, so a woman’s age when she freezes her eggs can make a big difference in success rates. The older a woman is when she freezes her eggs, the lower the chances of success with each mature egg that is frozen, and generally, older women also have fewer eggs to freeze, so doctors generally don’t recommend egg freezing for women over age 38. Women in their 20’s and 30’s have the most and best quality eggs, and so the highest subsequent pregnancy rates. However, the chance they are going to need to use the eggs later in life is also less, so doctors generally don’t recommend the process for women under age 30.

Egg freezing is usually done either to preserve eggs when a woman is going to undergo treatment for cancer or other diseases that could permanently damage or destroy the eggs (e.g. radiation or chemotherapy), or for a woman who does not have a partner and/or does not yet want to get pregnant but wants to preserve her fertility by freezing eggs for future use. Eggs can be kept frozen for many years so that when the woman wants to use the eggs they can be thawed, fertilized with her partner’s sperm (or donor sperm if she has no partner) and the resulting embryo(s) transferred into the uterus, usually 5 days after the fertilization procedure.

Gestational Carriers or Surrogates

Certain infertility challenges may call for third-party reproduction involving a woman becoming pregnant, carrying the baby to delivery, and giving the baby to the intended parent(s) after delivery. Sometimes the egg and/or sperm are provided by the intended parent(s), sometimes by egg and/or sperm donors and sometimes the surrogate also supplies the egg.

Financing

ARC Fertility Financing helps with the financial burdens related to the cost of IVF treatments. Employees may finance any of the following:

• Any ARC Fertility Treatment Package
• Medical services received from an ARC physician
• Pharmaceutical products through the ARC Pharmacy Plan
• Genetic testing services

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)

IUI is a simple office procedure that involves processing sperm and then placing a large number of the highly motile processed sperm directly into the uterus to increase chances sperm can reach the fallopian tubes and fertilize the egg. Only the most active sperm are placed into the uterus using a catheter passed through the cervix.

Egg Bank

An egg bank is a repository for eggs that have been frozen either by women who want to preserve their eggs for future use or, more commonly, eggs that have been donated by women who want to help other women who don’t have sufficient normal eggs to get pregnant. Egg banks obtain eggs through an assisted reproductive technology cycle (like IVF but the eggs are not fertilized), freeze the eggs, and then provide information about the egg donors to potential intended parents who select the eggs based on characteristics of the egg donor.

Egg Donation

Egg donation is one type of third party reproduction in which a woman donates her eggs to another woman who otherwise would not be able to have a baby. Third-party reproduction involves a person other than the intended parent(s) in the reproductive process. This is also known as donor-assisted reproduction and can involve donated eggs, sperm, or embryos. These are typically used for older women who have very few or no normal eggs, for men with no sperm, and in same-sex relationships.

Egg Retrieval

An egg retrieval is a minor surgical procedure performed with mild anesthesia. After the woman has had stimulation of her ovaries with gonadotropin drugs for about 10 days, the follicles in the ovaries have increased in number and enlarged in size so that a majority of the eggs are mature. A small needle is passed with ultrasound guidance through the vaginal wall into the ovary and each follicle is aspirated to retrieve the fluid from the follicle. The embryologist then looks for the egg in the follicular fluid. The entire procedure generally takes less than half an hour, has very little pain and the woman can return home about an hour after the procedure.

Embryo Donation

Embryo donation is one type of third-party reproduction in which the individual(s) who have created an embryo(s) donate the embryo(s) to an infertile individual(s) so that they can be parents. Embryos are generally donated from those who have done IVF and had a baby or babies and have extra cryopreserved embryos in storage that are not needed by them because they have achieved their family building goals.

Male Service

Testicular sperm aspiration (TESA) and microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration (MESA) are surgical methods to retrieve sperm from men whose low sperm counts are linked to infertility. This option is available at almost all ARC clinics.

Adoption

ARC Fertility clinics work with known and reputable local adoption agencies that are available to employees. Additionally, ARC Fertility works with and can refer employees to national adoption agencies that perform adoptions both domestically and internationally.

Emotional Support

Infertility can be a major life crisis for many of those suffering from it. The ARC Fertility team consists of individuals with decades of experience in IVF clinics helping patients on their infertility journey. We know how critical this emotional support is and are happy to be able to provide knowledgeable support to our patients.

Additionally, ARC Fertility clinics have support teams and professionals within their clinics or to whom employees can be referred.

ARC Fertility works with and can refer employees to nationally recognized mental health professionals and other helpful resources.