{"id":27870,"date":"2025-04-21T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/?post_type=podcast&p=27870"},"modified":"2025-04-18T21:36:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:36:40","slug":"episode-206","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/education\/podcast\/episode-206\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 206: Building Better Benefits\u2014for Bread Financial and Herself"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[451,230,240],"tags":[380,454,480],"class_list":["post-27870","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","hentry","category-family-building","category-education","category-trying-to-conceive","tag-family-building-benefit","tag-member-story","tag-need-for-employer-sponsored-fertility-benefit"],"yoast_head":"\nEpisode 206: Building Better Benefits\u2014for Bread Financial and Herself | Progyny<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Deanna shares how her team's search for better 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Financial ended up adding the Progyny fertility benefit, and Deanna was able to experience the benefit firsthand.","episode_intro_guest":"Deanna Allison","episode_intro_company":"Bread Financial","episode_banner_section_intro_text":"This is Infertility is a bi-weekly podcast where we fuse narrative storytelling with experience and science to give you a new perspective on what it\u2019s really like to go through a family building journey. Each episode dives into the emotional, physical, and financial burdens carried by those who experience infertility on their path to parenthood. Be it IVF, IUI, egg freezing, surrogacy, adoption, etc., the path is never the same and it can be long, painful, and lonely. It\u2019s our mission to give those struggling a platform to be heard, a community connection, and an opportunity to raise awareness of the 1 in 6 who, for many reasons, struggle with infertility.","episode_page_title":"Episode 206: Building Better Benefits\u2014for Bread Financial and Herself","episode_embed_code":"<iframe style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/35861405\/height\/128\/theme\/modern\/size\/standard\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/ffffff\/time-start\/00:00:00\/playlist-height\/200\/direction\/backward\/download\/yes\/stats-code\/landing206\/font-color\/000000\" width=\"100%\" height=\"128\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>","episode_details":"<span data-contrast=\"auto\">In this episode, we hear a deeply personal and professional journey. As a benefits leader, Deanna Allison was on a mission to bring better fertility and family building benefits to her company, Bread Financial. Simultaneously, Deanna had also just set out on her own path to parenthood, realizing she would likely need support to build a family.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Deanna shares how her team's search for better benefits led them to adopt Progyny, a decision driven by lived experience, better outcomes, and the desire to truly meet their associates' needs.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Deanna was able to utilize Progyny, and through various treatments and decisions, she ultimately was able to meet her beautiful baby girl. Through it all, Deanna's personal experience and professional purpose were aligned \u2014 knowing she had done right by Bread Financial associates through the lens of her own experience.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Tune in to explore what it means to launch comprehensive family building benefits and how validating it can be when those benefits end up supporting you, too.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Guests<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">: Deanna Allison, Director of Benefits, Well-Being, and Financial Programs, Bread Financial<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Host<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">: Dan Bulger, Progyny<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"none\">For more information, visit Progyny\u2019s Podcast page and\u202f<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.progyny.com\/education\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Progyny\u2019s Education page<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u202ffor more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at\u202f<\/span><a href=\"mailto:thisisinfertility@progyny.com\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">thisisinfertility@progyny.com<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"none\">Watch this episode on YouTube:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/VGCh0RacSPg\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/VGCh0RacSPg<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"none\">Here are some highlights from this episode:<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Realizing the Need for Better\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">02:47 \u2013 04:07<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dan Bulger:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> She was just about to partake on a project at work that would significantly impact her journey. See, a big part of her job is to select and manage employer sponsored benefits. Around this time in her story, she and her team were in the process of searching for a vendor to provide fertility and family building benefits for Bread Financial associates.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Deanna Allison<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">: At Bread Financial, one of the things that we're always looking at is, are we solving the need? With any product we have, is there a need that we're actually trying to solve for? My boss had been through a struggle with fertility 20 years earlier. Someone on our team had been through one about 10 years ago. And as we were venting about just, you know, it's hard to pick specialists, it's hard to know what to go after, and it's hard not to be frustrated and hurt. It really became evident, no matter how long you've been doing this, or how long ago your journey might have been, patient experience is still the same. It's a frustrating business. You walk into a doctor's office and you're going to see a list of procedures that price from $750 to $70,000 and the first question you tend to have is, what can you afford, or what does your insurance coverage look like?<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Finding the Benefit and Using it, Herself\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">04:47 -\u00a0 09:45<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dan Bulger<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">: Her team started investigating options. Prior to this, Bread Financial actually did offer coverage for fertility treatments. In fact, they were early pioneers in offering that kind of benefit, but the offering they had was limited and didn't include a lot of support that she and the team knew people needed. Bread Financial ended up adding the Progyny fertility benefit, and Deanna was able to experience the benefit firsthand.<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Deanna Allison:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Because of my age, right quality was probably the issue that we were dealing with. We would go for round two, I think I got 10 or 12 eggs in total. So again, I responded really well. And the same thing happened. All of them took fertilization, but none of them matured. So, when we went back to talk to him a third time, we just had a really honest conversation. If you could change something to make round three possibly better, what would that be? And he was honest, the odds aren't great based on what we know right now, and there's not a whole lot more we can change. We threw what we could at the egg quality issue, and I just asked, because I had done some research; that is donor eggs most likely our next option?<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Assuring Great Outcomes for Bread... and Deanna!\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">10:23 \u2013 12:41<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Deanna Allison:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> What I did love about this process is, unlike say, adoption or surrogacy, I got to carry the baby, meaning I got to control the environment. I got prenatal care under control. I've got food and diet and exercise and all those things which you want to have a good environment for your baby, where you can, right? And it was incredibly important to me to control what I could. And I realized, while I hadn't really thought donor eggs would be for me along the way, it was probably the best fit for me, because I actually had more control than the other options would have given me in terms of a good outcome.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">It always feels good when you can match who you are to what you're doing here on the benefit side and the people's side of the house. So, for us, that experience, just getting it right. I was able to benefit personally, and that always feels good when you know you got it right for the people, because you've sat where they're going to sit.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>","episode_host_image":22652,"episode_host_title":"Dan Bulger, Producer at Progyny","episode_host_bio":"Dan has been in the healthcare industry for the past ten plus years as a multimedia content producer. Better known as \u2018Video Dan\u2019 he has interviewed numerous doctors, patients and other experts in the world of fertility. He\u2019s also the producer for this podcast, This is Infertility and the producer behind the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/progyny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"exc\" aria-label=\"Progyny YouTube Channel - opens in new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"na\">\u00a0Progyny YouTube Channel<\/a>\u00a0which features interviews with dozens of the nation\u2019s leading fertility specialists. On a personal note Dan\u2019s parents started fostering kids when he was four years old, and he considers himself a proud older brother to over 100 foster children.","episode_guest_1_image":27871,"episode_guest_1_title":"Deanna Allison, Director of Benefits, Well-Being and Financial Programs, Bread Financial based in Columbus Ohio","episode_guest_1_bio":"I have been in the benefits industry for over 20 years. I've done both large plan administration and Third-Party Administrator (TPA) work during my career. My current role includes oversight for the benefits involving participant behavior and the overall well-being for a global audience. My favorite part of the role is that I get to make a big impact in the day-to-day lives of the associate population we serve. My group has proudly created and shared our award-winning content and programs for more than 10 years. Our mission is meeting you where you are on the journey. We've met directly with more than 6,000 associates delivering content on Mental Health, Physical Well-Being and Financial Confidence.\r\n\r\nI've obtained certifications in a multitude of HR disciplines. I also have an MBA and a master\u2019s in strategic leadership from LeTourneau University.\r\n\r\nI enjoy outdoor adventures with my husband (Ken) and our new baby (Rosalee) along with our great dane and boxer. 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