California residents who work at Walmart and have infertility issues will soon have coverage for fertility services. The retailer has announced that it will be offering the option to employees, making it easier to start families. This comes thanks to a partnership with Kindbody.
Walmart partners with Kindbody
The partnership between is a welcome move for employees with infertility issues. The retailer will provide its employees with access to Kindbody facilities throughout California and the country itself. Walmart employees will be able to access a variety of services such as in vitro fertilization, gestational surrogacy and adoption.
State-of-the-art benefits
The Kindbody team will include a team of endocrinologists and embryologists available to treat Walmart employees who need fertility assessments, education, genetic testing, fertility preservation, IVF and intrauterine insemination. The Kindbody clinic headquarters is located in Arkansas and will provide both in-house care and virtual appointments. It is expected to open in late 2022.
Some Walmart associates will also have access to benefits that provide them with surrogacy and adoption opportunities. This will include financial support for a lifetime of up to $20,000 for expenses related to those services. Both hourly and salaried full-time employees will also get maternity and parental leave of up to 16 weeks of paid time off for birth mothers. Employees who adopt or foster children will get six weeks of paid time off to bond with their new children.
A Walmart spokesperson stated that the company was proud to expand its benefits to employees to include fertility treatments for those who need them. These services expand on other health services offered by the company, including medical, dental and vision coverage.
These welcome additions to health services covered for Walmart employees come shortly after the Department of Health and Human Services made a new rule for Title X to ensure that people get access to affordable family planning services.
The inclusion of fertility services to be offered to employees through their insurance benefits should bring relief to those who have battled with infertility. It could help them get an edge in starting their own families.