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PETBioNewsCommentIVF licence fees could hit patients

BioNews

IVF licence fees could hit patients

Published 18 June 2009 posted in Comment and appears in BioNews 165

Author

Juliet Tizzard

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.

As this week's BioNews reports, IVF clinics in the UK could face a huge increase in the cost of being licensed to offer services to the general public. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is set to reorganise its fee structure in order to raise an extra £2.5 million...

As this week's BioNews reports, IVF (in vitro fertilisation) clinics in the UK could face a huge increase in the cost of being licensed to offer services to the general public. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is set to reorganise its fee structure in order to raise an extra £2.5 million each year to cover increased operating costs.

Not surprisingly, the proposals, which are the subject of an HFEA consultation, have not been warmly welcomed by clinics. Licensed clinics already pay a small set-up and annual license fee, plus £40 per IVF cycle performed in the clinic. In order to minimise the impact upon treatment prices to patients, the HFEA has proposed a massive increase in the set-up and annual licensing fees, whilst keeping the IVF cycle fee at much the same level.


License fees have always been a bone of contention amongst UK IVF clinics. Part of the criticism has been that because most IVF treatment cycles are not provided by the NHS (so patients must pay for treatment themselves), any increased costs to the clinic will be passed onto patients in the form of a treatment price rise.


For a private clinic charging patients for treatment, any increase in costs is likely to be passed onto patients, regardless of whether the cost is associated with running the clinic or with the cost of providing that particular treatment cycle. The HFEA's efforts to minimise the impact on patients of license fee increases for clinics is a noble one. But whether the proposed fee changes will have the desired effect remains to be seen.

Related Articles

Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family entwined in coils of DNA (based on the figure of Laocoön from Greek and Roman mythology).
News
9 June 2009 • 2 minutes read

HFEA decides against licence fee increase

by BioNews

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which licenses all work carried out on human embryos in the UK, has decided to abandon its plans for a steep increase in licence fees. The authority proposed the fee changes earlier this year and sent them out for consultation before 30 June...

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