A first-of-its-kind partnership between Costco Pharmacy, cash-pay healthcare marketplace Sesame and reproductive medicine and fertility clinic network IVI RMA is reshaping how individuals access fertility care and at what cost. In the United States, approximately 15% of couples experience infertility, yet high costs, care delays and a fragmented treatment pathway continue to obstruct care. Corporate Insight’s April 2026 Pharmacy Monitor Update covered the program’s launch, which estimates cost savings up to 80% on medications and $5,500 to $10,000 per IVF cycle. While the price reductions command the headlines, the deeper significance lies in what the model represents: a meaningful shift toward patient-centered care in a landscape that has long acknowledged barriers without providing practical solutions.
Costco’s Fertility Care Page: A Closer Look
Fertility care remains a culturally taboo topic—one many individuals undergo without adequate information or support. By featuring the program prominently on a nationally recognized platform, Costco normalizes the conversation. The program’s digital presence via a dedicated page, homepage promotion and site header navigation position the collaboration to reach audiences who may not yet know they need it, expanding awareness of when to begin the fertility care timeline.
Costco’s Fertility Care page serves as a central hub for the partnership, including direct links to Sesame and Sesame’s Fertility Program page. Medication pricing is front and center given the program’s pricing transparency priority. The page prominently features infertility medication Follistim, and for good reason. The Costco negotiated price starts at $164 for members, while the retail price averages $1,187.46. A carousel displays pricing for additional medications, giving customers a sense of savings before they start the process. Costco’s role in the partnership centers on medication pricing, so the page appropriately links customers to Sesame for process details. Customers can also find an intake form directly from the page which promotes a seamless start to the program.
Why Fertility Care Needs a New Model
Innovation in fertility care has been incremental and incomplete. Fewer than half of states require private insurers to cover fertility treatments, and many that do exclude medications from coverage while obscuring real pricing. Specialty mail-order pharmacy Alto reduces fertility medication costs, but its involvement ends at delivery. Supplemental benefit firm Progyny works alongside health insurers, but coverage relies on employer-sponsorship. The result is a landscape of partial solutions, each targeting one barrier while leaving others untouched.
The Costco, Sesame and IVI RMA model reflects a direct response to each of these gaps. Costco members pay $99 per month to connect with Sesame, while non-members pay $119 per month. From there, customers meet virtually with a Sesame provider of their choosing for digital intake and diagnostic workup, immediately bypassing the typical three-to-six month wait for a consultation. Notably, Sesame providers remain available throughout the treatment process—a key benefit as questions inevitably arise along the way. Sesame then refers patients to a nearby IVI RMA clinic, where they receive treatments and medications at prices negotiated by Costco. Due to the repeat-visit nature of fertility care, geographic proximity matters: over 85% of IVI RMA clinics are located within 25 miles of every Costco address—a meaningful consideration given that approximately 1,250 reproductive endocrinologists practice nationwide.
A Partnership Built to Reach More Customers
The scale of Costco’s reach underscores the partnership’s potential. Alto and Progyny, established players, have impacted over 180,000 and 470,000 members, respectively, over ten years. Costco’s membership base of 145 million cardholders suggests this collaboration could dwarf both. IVI RMA holds one of the largest networks of IVF laboratories in the country, and Sesame operates in all 50 states without a middleman. The partnership has also taken deliberate steps to broaden access. Sesame’s cash-pay model eliminates insurance as a prerequisite, and IVI RMA’s clinic network spans areas already served by Costco. The virtual intake process removes the geographic and logistical barriers that delay treatment for patients in underserved communities.
Whether the coordinated care model performs as expected remains to be seen. Corporate Insight will continue to monitor how the pharmacy industry addresses healthcare challenges like barriers to fertility care. For more insights into digital innovation in the healthcare space, check out our subscription research services in four areas: Pharmacy, Health System, Health Plan and Medicare. And don’t forget to check out our Insights section for more industry trends and best practices in healthcare.
Sophia Stone
Sophia Stone is a research associate on Corporate Insight's healthcare team.