Financial support: IVF Fund

The IVF Fund Act provides for the following conditions:

• The couple must live in an upright marriage, registered partnership or marriage-like cohabitation.
• Same-sex couples are entitled to benefits if the woman, who will carry the child, meets the necessary medical conditions .

• Diagnosed female sterility, due to endometriosis, Fallopian tube obstruction or polycystic ovarian syndrome.
• Diagnosed male sterility
• All other ways to induce pregnancy have been unsuccessful.

The appropriate diagnosis must be determined by a specialist before the fertility treatment begins.

If a sterilization has been carried out by one of the partners at its own request, there is no right to co-financing by the IVF Fund. The claim can be asserted, however, if the sterilization has been carried out for medical reasons.

At the beginning of the fertility treatment, the woman who intends to deliver the child may not have reached the age of 40. The man or the partner may not have exceeded the age of 50 yet. If the age limit is exceeded during the treatment, the IVF funds will cover the costs of the ongoing treatment. Support for further treatment by the IVF Fund is then no longer possible.

Both partners must have proof of performance.

This can be issued by:

• The statutory health insurance
• A health care facility
• Private, Austrian health insurance
• A private, foreign health insurance

Persons who have statutory health insurance in other EU countries or in Switzerland must submit a form S 1 issued by their respective insurance if they live in Austria. If you live in EU / EEA countries, you need form S2. These forms guarantee that the costs of the IVF treatment are borne by the health insurance funds. In cases in which private insurance companies do not issue a consent to reimbursement of costs, provided that all the other eligibility requirements for both partners of the couple exist, that portion of the costs can be borne by the couple themselves after examination and approval by the IVF fund. This consent must be obtained by the couple before the start of a trial.

Entitlement to costs under the IVF Fund exists for:

• Austrian citizens
• Citizen of an EEA member state
• Citizen of the Swiss Confederation
• Persons who, as members of persons entitled to vested benefits of an EEA Contracting State or the Swiss Confederation, have a right of residence under EU law pursuant to §§ 54 or 54a of the Settlement and Residence Act (NAG), BGBl. I No. 100/2005
• Persons who hold residence permits according to § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1, 2, 3, 7 or 8 Settlement and Residence Act (NAG)
• Persons who have a "residence permit plus" pursuant to § 55 (1) and § 56 (1) Asylum Act 2005, BGBl. I No. 100/2005
• Asylum seekers according to § 3 Asylum Act 2005

In principle, the IVF fund assumes the proportionate costs of a maximum of four attempts per pair. A trial is considered to be a complete course of treatment from the time the IVF center is actually received (first-time prescription or administration of medicinal products for women) to proof of pregnancy or pregnancy that has not occurred according to the provisions of the IVF Fund Law.

An aborted treatment cycle due to lack of success should be considered as an attempt. However, if an attempt for medical reasons has to be discontinued after oocyte retrieval and any cryopreserved (frozen) embryos obtained are used in the subsequent treatment cycle, this is only an attempt. Otherwise, each treatment cycle using cryopreserved embryos kept from a previous completed trial is considered a separate trial.

The assumption of costs for more than four attempts presupposes that at least one pregnancy could be brought about successfully by methods of IVF. If one of the attempts is successfully completed and a pregnancy is brought about in accordance with the criteria of the IVF Fund Act, the full claim to reimbursement for four attempts resumes after this attempt.

If you do not meet the requirements of the IVF Fund, you will automatically be considered a private pensioner.