Below you will find answers to our most frequently asked questions. If you can't find the answer to your question here, please call us at 1-877-822-7836.
The cost of the service has two components:
If you find a better price with another cord blood bank, please give us an opportunity to match or beat that price!
The freezing and storing of the umbilical cord may be an eligible expense under a health FSA (assuming the plan allows) if there is a specific medical condition that umbilical cord is intended to treat. However, per IRS Private Letter Ruling 200140017 dated June 25, 2001, the collection and storage for an indefinite period of time is not considered medical care defined as expenses incurred "or the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body." The IRS has stated in informal remarks that the cost of storing cord blood where a newborn has a birth defect and where the cord blood would be needed in the near future may qualify for reimbursement.
If, for some reason, your blood is not collected correctly, or there is not enough blood for stem cells, or if contamination occurs during the collection process, the only cost to you will be the cost of the collection kit and registration paperwork ($48).
Utah Cord Bank offers coupon discounts for participating in prenatal or early childbirth education classes at most Utah hospitals. Please check with your class instructor or contact Utah Cord Bank for details.
Yes, we offer this service at no cost to you. Call us to discuss other payment options.
We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover Card. We also accept cash or check. Contact us if your desired form of payment is not listed.
The price you are quoted when you sign up will be your price for 10 years. After 10 years the price may or may not change to reflect an increase in operating costs if such an increase occurs.
Your doctor or midwife will usually collect the blood using a special sterile kit which UCB will send you before your baby’s birth. UCB will collect the sterile kit from your hospital and extract the cells from the blood. Other options are available if you doctor or midwife is unable to collect the blood .
The procedure is both quick and simple. We include detailed instructions with the kit. Because UCB is a local Utah company, UCB can personally train your doctor/midwife in the procedure if they need assistance. Your doctor/midwife can also contact UCB directly at 1-877-UCB-STEM with any questions.
There is no pain involved and the simple and safe procedure usually takes your doctor or midwife only a few minutes.
A needle attached to a special bag is inserted into a vein in the umbilical cord and the blood drains into the bag. The procedure is done after the baby has been born.
The blood bag is labeled with instructions for doing this. After the blood is collected, call the number on the bag and a courier will be dispatched immediately to collect the blood. Because we are a local company, your cells will be processed much sooner than they would if an out-of-state company were involved. Regardless of when you deliver, umbilical cord blood will be picked up immediately and processed immediately.
Cord blood banking involves three parts:
The first step is the most complicated and varies the most widely. Utah Cord Bank stores the stem cells in vials (bags are not as reliable for long term liquid nitrogen storage). Cord blood is usually processed in one of two ways. Some companies deplete the red blood cells using dextran and store the remainder. We perform an additional step to further purify the stem cells and will store just the mononuclear cells.
The second process gets rid of the platelets and the nuetrophils which could potentially cause problems (degranulate) upon thawing. Degranulation releases toxic proteases which can irritate or damage surrounding cells and tissues. Neutrophil degranulation is an area of expertise for this lab so most companies might not even be aware of it or its effects. When labs research stem cell therapies, they will often take the entire mononuclear portion (sans platelets) of a stem cell isolation and inject it directly into the damaged tissue.
Utah Cord Bank takes additional purification steps in order to store only the mononuclear cells from your baby's umbilical cord blood, thereby providing a more pure stem cell yield for later therapeutic use.
Utah Cord Bank stores your cells with the assumption that the cells will be used someday (New therapies are being discovered rapidly. The ability to increase the number of useable cells by improved culturing techniques is improving). Even though it is slightly more labor intensive and expensive, we store several smaller vials for maximum future flexibility. Your sample can be stored in multiple locations and can be used in smaller quantities instead of all at once. Utah Cord Bank also stores a separate pilot vial containing a very small fraction of your stem cells. UCB can send the pilot vial to a physician on request from them to analyze the sample and determine if it meets their criteria for therapeutic use.
The cells are stored submerged in liquid nitrogen in industrial strength cryovials encased in a leak-proof sealing matrix.
Some companies "double-bag" the cells to protect the cells from contamination or container compromise. Utah Cord Bank takes this important consideration one step further to ensure that your stem cells are protected from any threat of contamination from the environment or from other cells. We do this by:
Our process provides two air-tight and leak-proof barriers to protect your stem cells.