A week after the state Senate was deadlocked on a bill expanding mandates to health insurers in aiding couples using in vitro fertilization, the measure passed and is now headed to the Maryland House.

Joan Carter Conway

By a 25-20 vote, the Senate approved SB 27, proposed by Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Baltimore City). On Feb. 15, the same body reached a 23-23 tie on the measure, but said it would revisit the bill.

Conway’s bill would expand current coverage in prohibiting insurers, nonprofit health service plans and health maintenance organizations from excluding benefits for expenses couples incur from in vitro fertilization under two specific circumstances: if the patient’s spouse is unable to produce sperm due to nonobstructive azoospermia and the patient has ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

According to the fiscal note accompanying the bill, the Department of Legislative Services estimates that the probability of a couple pursuing in vitro fertilization with the two specific conditions identified is just 1%.

Media reports indicate the bill was generated after two constituents in Conway’s district have both specified conditions.

The fiscal note also states that Owings Mills, Md.-based CareFirst estimates the impact to its risk-based business, which does not include state plan costs, at $543,720 per year. The estimate is based on a premium increase of 23 cents per contract per month an on a 5% increase regarding in vitro fertilization services per year, which the state department said it believed to be “somewhat high.”