17 months ago, the Ontario provincial government promised to extend OHIP coverage to cover one round of IVF for eligible patients. This change was expected to occur in 2015.
However, many questions about the coverage were unanswered — and unfortunately, still haven’t been answered. Now that we’re creeping closer to the end of 2015, patients and clinics alike are getting antsy.
From Quebec’s slow rollout, we already guessed that a January 2015 launch was wishful thinking, but we had hopes for a summer launch. Indeed, a very strong source told us that we’d receive more specific direction about offering OHIP-covered IVF by July 2015.
Unfortunately, summer has come and gone, and we still haven’t received critical guidelines or instructions about delivering OHIP-covered IVF to our patients.
So I’m sorry to say that for the moment, the answer is: we still don’t know. But don’t lose hope entirely: a spokesman for the Ministry of Health recently said we’ll learn more about eligibility requirements this fall, and the OHIP-covered IVF program should begin “before the end of the year.”
We expect to hear more from the Ontario government in the coming weeks, and will keep you updated here.