Paying for IVF in Australia
A stimulated IVF treatment cycle and the procedures billed with it. Four routes can pay for it: a public hospital, the Medicare benefit, private hospital cover and paying the provider yourself. The table sets out what each route covers, the wait and the price, with the source of every figure and the date it was read. Where a route publishes nothing, or this site has not read it, the cell says so.
How each route pays for IVF
| Route | What it covers | Wait | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public service | Not trackedWhether and how a public service provides this has not been read | Not trackedNo public wait for this treatment has been read | Not trackedNo public charge for this treatment has been read | None for this row |
| Medicare benefitPer MBS item | Outside hospital, Medicare pays a benefit towards a GP or specialist fee; if the doctor bulk bills, there is nothing to pay | Not applicableMedicare pays a benefit; it does not set a wait | Benefit set per MBS item: 8 items, listed belowEach item links to MBS Online. Figures not reproduced here until the MBS reuse terms are confirmed |
|
| Private hospital coverInsurance as a mechanism; no insurer or policy named | Not trackedAPRA publishes in-hospital medical gaps by MBS specialty group only, and none is mapped to this treatment | Not trackedNo private-hospital wait is published | Not trackedNo figure for this treatment has been read | None for this row |
| Private fertility clinicFee schedules on clinics’ own websites | The clinic’s own fees, as its fee schedule lists themClinics list fees before or after the Medicare benefit; the basis is read per figure | Not trackedNo clinic wait has been read | 39 of 97 clinics publish a readable fee scheduleEach clinic’s figures and fee page are on the Australian IVF cost page linked below |
|
- Medicare does not cover private-patient hospital costs such as theatre fees and accommodation (privatehealth.gov.au: Medicare, read 26 October 2026).
- Figures from different routes are not added together. A Medicare benefit, an insurer's payment and a hospital's self-pay price each describe a different part of the bill.
The Medicare items for IVF
Medicare pays a benefit per MBS item, and each item has its own. They are listed one by one and never added together: which items a doctor bills depends on the treatment given, and the schedule fee is what the benefit is calculated from, not what a doctor charges. Each item links to its page on MBS Online, where its fee and benefits are published. The figures are not reproduced here until the MBS reuse terms are confirmed.
Item 13200: IVF stimulated treatment cycle proceeding to egg collection: first cycle in a calendar year
Item 13201: IVF stimulated treatment cycle proceeding to egg collection: each later cycle in the same calendar year
Item 13202: IVF stimulated treatment cycle cancelled before egg collection
Item 13209: Specialist planning and management of a treatment cycle
Item 13212: Egg collection (oocyte retrieval)
Item 13215: Embryo transfer
Item 13218: Preparing frozen or donated embryos, or donated eggs, for transfer
Item 13251: ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) for male-factor infertility
Source: MBS Online, release 20261101, read 26 October 2026. Item labels are TreatCompare's plain-English wording; the MBS descriptor on MBS Online is the authority.
More on IVF in Australia
Sources
- MBS Online, release 20261101. Read 26 October 2026. Medicare Benefits Schedule items, per item.
- privatehealth.gov.au: Medicare. Read 26 October 2026.
- Clinic fee pages, read against the ANZARD clinic register. Read 3 October 2026.