Progyny is a leading fertility and family-building benefits management company that partners with employers to provide innovative, comprehensive solutions improving access to care, patient outcomes, and cost efficiency.
Katie, what drew you to join Progyny?
I celebrated my one-year anniversary at Progyny yesterday, so this conversation is well-timed. Joining a new company always comes with challenges, but this past year has been the most exciting of my nearly 30-year career in healthcare. My journey here began after spending over two decades in the industry, starting at the Advisory Board Company, where I held various leadership roles in sales, business development, and client success. That period shaped my understanding of healthcare systems and their complexities.
Following the Advisory Board's acquisition by UnitedHealth Group, I transitioned to Optum, where I worked on strategic partnerships with health systems to create more efficient hospital operations. However, I found myself feeling removed from the direct delivery of care. To drive real healthcare innovation, I realized it was essential to focus on the stakeholders paying for care—employers and the government. That insight led me to Crossover Health, where I explored employer-sponsored healthcare and innovative care models. Progyny’s unique approach to addressing key challenges in healthcare—access, payment models, patient outcomes, and experience—drew me in. The company’s ability to “crack the code” on these aspects makes it a leader in healthcare innovation.
How prevalent an issue is infertility? And what is the unmet need associated with it?
Infertility is a prevalent condition, affecting one in six people globally, according to the World Health Organization. Despite being a medical condition that significantly impacts quality of life, infertility is not universally recognized as such, and coverage for treatment is not mandated by many healthcare systems. This leaves many patients shouldering the burden of solving this issue themselves, often without proper access to care.
In the U.S., fertility care coverage varies by employer and jurisdiction, creating barriers to treatment for many individuals. Progyny seeks to address this gap by partnering with employers to provide innovative, comprehensive fertility and family-building benefits. By improving access, care pathways, and outcomes, Progyny helps members navigate a traditionally underserved area of healthcare while also managing costs effectively for employers.
What, concretely, is a ‘fertility benefits management company"?
At its core, Progyny is a fertility, family-building, and women's health benefit management company. Employers partner with us to manage the healthcare spend in these areas, allowing us to guide their members through a process that prioritizes patient outcomes while controlling costs. Essentially, we provide a carved-out solution for employers to address these specific healthcare needs more effectively.
Our primary focus is on employer partnerships rather than working directly with patients. While some of these relationships may come through health plans or healthcare aggregators, the employer remains our central client. This model allows us to offer tailored solutions that maximize both patient care and cost efficiency.
What sets Progyny apart from its competitors?
Progyny’s success lies in its ability to combine three key elements: a network of accredited specialists, a clinically integrated patient support system, and an innovative benefit design. These components enable us to deliver better experiences, outcomes, and cost management. For instance, infertility treatments often suffer from a lack of a structured healthcare framework, but Progyny reimagines the experience by building a system that prioritizes quality care and seamless coordination.
Over the past eight years, we have learned from working with nearly 500 employers, ranging from global corporations to smaller innovative organizations. This breadth of experience has allowed us to refine our approach, ensuring that our services address both individual needs and broader systemic challenges. We have created a model that not only serves the family-building space but also lays the groundwork for expansion into women’s health.
How does Progyny’s work on women’s health complement its core mission?
Women’s health is an underserved area within the healthcare system, often existing outside primary care. Unlike men, who can typically address most of their healthcare needs through a primary care physician, women frequently require multiple specialists to address their concerns. This fragmentation leads to delays in diagnosis and treatment, creating a suboptimal care experience.
Building on our expertise in family-building benefits, we are applying our specialized network, integrated care management, and innovative coverage models to women’s health. This approach addresses not only quality of life but also cost drivers, as maternity and related expenses are consistently among the top contributors to rising healthcare costs for employers. By investing in comprehensive women’s health solutions, we aim to improve outcomes for patients while delivering tangible value to plan sponsors.
What is a typical company that benefits from Progyny’s services?
There is not a typical client, but in our early days, we had a strong concentration of tech companies. These companies were early adopters of family-building benefits, using them as a recruitment and retention tool. Over time, what started as a trend in tech has spread across 45 industries, driven by younger generations entering the workforce with an expectation of access to fertility and family-building benefits. Today, we work with companies ranging in size from 1,000 employees to over 100,000, providing scalable solutions that meet diverse needs.
Progyny has helped bring more than 100,000 babies into the world…
We are incredibly proud of the more than 100,000 babies born through our services. Meeting regularly with clients to share these results is a moment of celebration, as it highlights the profound impact their benefit decisions have on employees’ lives. For some larger clients, this translates to hundreds or even thousands of families positively impacted by their support.
How global is Progyny?
Progyny is a global organization. While we have worked in the U.S. and Canada for some time, about six months ago, we expanded our international footprint through the acquisition of Apryl, a Berlin-based company. This acquisition, now known as Progyny Global, allows us to serve organizations with populations in over 100 countries.
This global platform is a significant step forward, enabling us to provide comprehensive solutions to multinational employers.
What progress do you hope to make at Progyny over the next year?
The U.S. still lags behind other countries in providing equitable access to fertility care, and there is significant room for growth in this area. Fertility benefits address an underserved segment of healthcare, and with increasing demand, we aim to expand services while educating the market on their importance. Beyond fertility, areas like menopause support, maternity care, and preventive solutions offer enormous potential to drive meaningful change.
Looking forward, we see opportunities to apply the DNA of our family-building solutions—specialized networks, integrated care management, and innovative benefit designs—to broader women’s health challenges. By creating comprehensive solutions, we aim to address fragmented care, improve outcomes for underserved populations, and help employers manage costs effectively. Personally, I am inspired by the potential to build a healthcare system that better serves women and families through better connected and specialized care that is invested in our quality of life - not only for our generation but also for future ones, like my 15-year-old daughter. I want my daughter to know she expect more from our health system than I have experienced or certainly the system of care than my mother or grandmother experienced. This work represents a chance to leave a lasting legacy in women’s healthcare.
