Fertility benefit vendors change their programs every year, and every employer configures its own plan. The vendor details on this page are general descriptions, marked for verification before publication, and the tax statements are marked for review by a CPA. Your plan documents are the final word.
What is a surrogacy employer benefit and who offers one?
A surrogacy employer benefit is money or a managed program your employer provides to help pay for family building, including surrogacy. Most employers do not run these programs themselves. They contract with a fertility benefits vendor, such as Carrot, Progyny or Maven, which administers the benefit, checks eligibility and pays or reimburses claims.
The benefit is your employer's design, delivered through the vendor's system. Benefits are also usually tied to your employment: ask what happens to an unused or partly used allowance if you change jobs in the middle of a journey that can run 18 to 24 months. Two employees using the same vendor can have very different benefits, so the vendor's name tells you how claims work, not how much you have.
| Carrot | Progyny | Maven | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benefit structure | Lifetime dollar allowance set by the employer | Covers IVF cycles through its clinic network; may add a surrogacy and adoption reimbursement | Reimbursement wallet combined with care navigation |
| Typical surrogacy allowance | Often $10,000 to $75,000, set by the employer | Depends on whether the employer adds a surrogacy reimbursement | Set by the employer's wallet amount |
| Eligible expenses | Eligible surrogacy expenses, including agency fees on many plans | IVF for the employee; surrogacy costs only if the reimbursement is added | Set by the employer's plan |
| How paid | Reimbursement for eligible expenses | IVF billed through the network; surrogacy by reimbursement | Reimbursement from the wallet |
| Tax treatment of surrogacy reimbursements | Generally taxable income to the employee | Generally taxable income to the employee | Generally taxable income to the employee |
Vendor program details: verify current Carrot allowance ranges, Progyny surrogacy reimbursement availability and Maven's current product before publishing.
How does Carrot reimburse surrogacy costs?
Carrot typically gives a lifetime dollar allowance, often $10,000 to $75,000 set by the employer, reimbursed for eligible surrogacy expenses, including agency fees on most employer plans.
The practical steps are the same on most reimbursement programs: confirm your plan's eligible expense list before you pay, pay the expense, then submit the invoice and proof of payment. Ask Carrot, in writing, whether the agency program fee, legal fees, escrow funding and surrogate compensation are each eligible under your employer's plan. The answers differ by plan.
How does Progyny handle IVF and surrogacy?
Progyny covers IVF cycles through its clinic network and may add a surrogacy and adoption reimbursement, depending on the employer.
For a surrogacy journey, the IVF side is often the larger benefit: retrieval and embryo creation for the intended parents can be covered as treatment. Transfers into a surrogate are usually excluded from medical benefits. If your employer has added a surrogacy reimbursement, it works like other reimbursement programs. If it has not, Progyny may still be valuable for creating embryos. That matters for timing as well as cost: creating and freezing embryos through your benefit before you match with a surrogate lets her cycle start as soon as the agreement is signed, which keeps the whole journey closer to 18 months than 24. See IVF costs with a surrogate.
How does Maven's wallet and navigation work?
Maven combines a reimbursement wallet with care navigation: a dollar amount you draw on for eligible expenses, plus access to guidance through the process.
The wallet works like other reimbursement programs. Ask what your wallet amount is, which surrogacy expenses are eligible, and how quickly reimbursements are paid. Navigation does not replace your agency, attorney or clinic, but it can help you understand your benefit.
What expenses are eligible and which are usually excluded?
Every plan publishes its own eligible expense list, and the lists differ. Ask your vendor about each of these categories, one by one:
- The agency program fee, and whether each installment counts on the date it is paid.
- Legal fees for your attorney and for the surrogate's attorney.
- Escrow administration fees, and whether money deposited into escrow counts when deposited or only when disbursed.
- Surrogate compensation and expenses.
- IVF and embryo creation for the intended parents.
- The surrogate's medical screening, medications and monitoring.
- Surrogate travel to your clinic.
- A surrogate health insurance policy, if one is needed.
- Costs you paid before your benefit started, or before you enrolled.
Eligible and excluded expense categories vary by employer plan; verify with each vendor. Get your plan's answer in writing before you sign with an agency, so you know which payments the benefit will reimburse.
Are employer surrogacy benefits taxable?
Generally yes. Because surrogacy expenses are not medical care for the employee's own body, employer reimbursements for surrogacy are generally taxable income to you, and your employer reports them as income. IVF for your own body is treated differently. Tax statement: reviewed by CPA.
That has a budgeting consequence: a reimbursement does not cover a cost dollar for dollar after tax. As an illustration only, if $20,000 of surrogacy expenses is reimbursed and your combined tax rate on that income were 30 percent, about $6,000 of the reimbursement would go to tax, leaving about $14,000 toward the journey. Ask your CPA what to set aside, and when. See surrogacy tax questions.
How does a benefit fit the payment schedule?
Reimbursement programs pay after you pay. That means you still need cash for each payment when it is due, and the reimbursement arrives later. At PLS the large payments come at signing, at match, and before medications start, when you fund the balance of the independent escrow account. If your benefit reimburses the escrow funding, ask how long reimbursement takes, and plan to bridge that gap with savings or a short-term line of credit.
If both partners have a benefit, ask both vendors how they coordinate. Some plans will not reimburse an expense another plan has paid, and the order in which you claim can change how much of the combined benefit you can use. Lifetime allowances also matter if you hope for a sibling later: money used now is not available then.
How do you submit PLS invoices and escrow statements for reimbursement?
Most programs reimburse the employee rather than paying the agency directly. Private Label Surrogacy supplies itemized invoices for each program fee installment, and the independent escrow agent provides statements showing each disbursement. Together they give a vendor what it typically asks for: what was paid, to whom, for what, and when.
PLS can also confirm the eligibility of its fees with your vendor before you sign. Bring your plan's eligible expense list to the consultation, and PLS will walk through which installments and third-party costs match it.
A practical sequence:
- Get your plan's eligible expense list and remaining balance in writing.
- Share it with PLS before signing, so the fee schedule can be matched to it.
- Pay each installment and keep the itemized invoice.
- Ask the escrow agent for statements as disbursements are made.
- Submit claims promptly. Some plans have filing deadlines.
What if my employer has no fertility benefit?
Ask HR, with specific questions:
- Is the company adding a fertility benefit at the next open enrollment?
- If a benefit exists, does it include surrogacy, or only IVF?
- Is there a lifetime maximum, and does it reset with a new plan year or vendor?
- Who decides eligibility questions: HR, the vendor or the insurer?
Many employers add Carrot or Progyny at open enrollment, and HR teams can tell you whether one is being considered. If your employer is not adding one, look at grants and financing, and check whether your partner's employer offers a benefit. See surrogacy grants, financing and loans and the full cost of surrogacy.