Birth rates drop on econ fears, but fertility industry still rich in stories

A couple of recent newspaper articles caught my eye and stirred up some pondering about the fertility industry – or assisted reproductive technology (ART), as it likes to call itself.

This Detroit Free Press story notes that Michigan’s birth rate dropped in 2009 to its lowest level since WWII, presumably due to economic fears.  (The baby bust was a nationwide trend, according to this CBS article.)  The article quoted fertility specialists as saying that patients had to drop out of treatment plans due to the costs.

Another article, this L.A. Times money makeover, described a high-spending, low-income couple who say fertility treatment costs “tipped them into bankruptcy,” where they discharged $50,000 in credit card debt.

Those articles made me wonder if fertility clinics – reportedly the mainstay of a $3 billion to $4 billion annual industry -  have fallen on hard times, and what they’re doing to counter slow business.  The entire industry – from physicians to clinics to medical-device suppliers, training institutes and more – is fascinating and ripe for myriad financial, workplace, career, technology and health care stories.

And, like everything else, there’s an app for that.

What really caught my eye in a couple of articles is the notion of special financing companies offering loans for fertility treatments.  I guess at $10,000 or $12,000 per attempt, that may be more than many couples have lying around – but how are these firms – like this one, Advanced Reproductive Care – regulated?  Do they  have subsidiaries licensed by and overseen by individual state regulatory agencies, or are they chartered as a national bank that can go across state lines?  What are the interest rates and loan terms like – is it a financing plan much like orthodontists use, or something more along the lines of a car loan?  Type “fertility financing” into a search engine and you’re bound to find companies near you.

It’s a great premise for a personal finance story chock full of consumer caveats, too.  And note on websites like that of Advance Reproductive Care the way donor eggs and other products are marketed via bundles and packages, just like services that don’t involve creating human life.

Largely unregulated – though the Octomom saga prompted some proposals by lawmakers — clinics are required to (though not penalized for failing to) report outcomes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  This annual ART report is downloadable and may provide you with leads to clinics and practitioners in your area.  (Read the caveats on the CDC page about interpreting the results.)

Check with state licensing boards for disciplinary actions and any other state oversight of reproductive specialists.   Also, many states require insurers to cover fertility treatment costs; check on policies in your market and talk with insurers about costs, how this affects premiums for everyone,  what procedures they will and won’t underwrite, and other financial angles.

This Newsweek report from 2010 about the high cost of reproductive treatments may help arm you with questions for local practitioners.   And the NYT has an entire web channel devoted to ART; even some of the older articles will edify you and help with composing story angles and questions.

Ethical issues tend to dominate discussions of fertility treatments, but from a business standpoint, the economic impact to hospitals, clinics and others can make for good reading.   I bet MedTech, a group purchasing organization for the industry, could provide a lot of insight into buying trends (and how they reflect clinic volume and revenue), technology shifts, etc.  — and check with other regional medical supply companies about how demand for IVF supplies like needles, catheters and growing medium have waxed and waned over the recession.   University hospitals can probably provide a good deal of insight, too.

It’s not all about in vitro, either.  A group call NaPro Technology seems – if a Google search is any indication — to be doing a brisk business in an alternative technology that helps couples following Catholic doctrine to boost chances of conception.

Don’t overlook non-traditional practices too – from herbs to hypnosis to acupuncture, there are holistic practitioners claiming to give nature a boost.  Ask drugstores about sales of over-the-counter products that claim to increase the odds of conception.  There also are advocacy groups, newsletter publishers, support groups (with monetized blogs) and all sorts of ancillary businesses.

Just one caveat: This is a gargantuan topic that can balloon quickly and before you know it you’re into pregnancy services, surrogate parenthood, doulas, the C-section debate, contraception, trends in maternity ward amenities and other reproduction-related business stories.  Rather than end up with a kitchen-sink story, I’d stick narrowly to the business of fertility enhancement  for this one and tuck the other ideas away for future use.  That’s the good thing about babies as a news peg – there’s another batch every day.