It’s going to take how long to receive reimbursement?!
I was talking to a friend the other day who had pet insurance. She made a small claim after her cat was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and needed some antibiotics. She was surprised when she got a phone call from the company, not from a person but a recorded message, saying that they had received her claim and she could expect an answer in 2 weeks. Not payment in 2 weeks, but an answer as to whether or not it would be covered! The message went on to tell her that if her claim was approved she could expect payment in 45 days! Lucky for her, she could front the $100 something that the vet charged, but what if this had been a couple thousand dollar treatment?
Since pet insurance works on a reimbursement model what happens to people if they are forced to front the pricey bill, put it on the credit card, and then have to pay interest on their credit card until they wait for reimbursement? Is this a common situation? Has this ever happened to you?
I had a similar situation where my pitbull was sick and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. When I took him to the vet they did a blood profile, couple X-rays, gave him medication, and just a regular check-up. When all was said and done, the vet bill came to a little over $300. The amount I got back from the insurance company was $65. NO JOKE. So I called them and asked if there was a mistake and they said no. They only cover certain procedures up to a specific amount and anymore than that, you’re on your own. After the deductible taken out of my reimburstment and fine print on coverage. I got a whole check for $65 dollars from a $300 vet bill. To be honest, I don’t think they are worth it. In the today’s economy, people cannot afford to pay $25-30 a month and not getting anything in return. If you think about it, your making monthly payments to the insurance, you have to pay the vet upfront, and if it’s on the credit card then you’re also paying interest. Basically you’re paying money to lose money.
Hey Kea,
Thanks for sharing the story. What an ordeal! I would be upset too! Especially since you were probably told that less a deductible you’d be covered 90%? And that actually came out to be less than 25%.
I’m wondering what you might think of a high deductible policy (say, $500-$1000) which would cost you somewhere around $10 a month. This is more for those crazy, unexpected incidents that happen that you (more than likely) wouldn’t be able to squeeze onto one credit card. Say, if your pet was hit by a car or got cancer and you were suddenly faced with gulp a $5,000 bill.
Stay away from VPI insurance. They have a set schedule and that is all they are going to pay. They once sent me a check for .50! Typically payment should be received within 2 weeks, this has been my experience. I was with petcareinsurance.com for over 4 years and they were amazing. After I got Riley though, I started looking around at different policies because with pet care insurance their limits didn’t renew every year and this would have been the first time I started out with a policy with a puppy. Check out petplan.com. They cover everything, you can pick different deductibles, coverage amount, they cover hereditary and cogenital problems and their limits renew every year!
Sorry, their website is gopetplan.com!
Joanne,
I’m glad to hear good things about PetPlan. My one-half year old kitten died this past August from complications of a blocked urinary tract. He spent less than 24 hours at the emergency vet prior to 2 days at my vet. Long story short his bill between the two vets came to $1500. I’m still paying on that bill. We adopted another young guys the day after Christmas and I decided to get the PetPlan insurance. It is $25 every 3 months. I hope we NEVER need to use it! But I can’t afford to spend that much again. The sad part is I’m paying this bill and my kitten is gone
I was just looking into pet insurance b/c a few months ago my dog almost died due to liver failure (thanks to the new weight loss drug SLENTROL and the fact that my vet didn’t monitor her blood monthly like she was supposed to!! BEWARE OF THIS DRUG!!!!) — one night she went outside onto the patio and it looked like a murder site – blood everywhere! After FOUR DAYS at the Critical Care vet they managed to save her life, thank God – I kid you not, $6,000.00 later!!! And we had to pay UP FRONT!!! The Vet told us if we had pet isurance it would have covered at least half of it.
So now I am thinking about cancer and other things that could happen and I feel like I should have insurance but dont know where to begin. I will check out Joanne’s suggestion of gopetplan.com but if anyone else has any other ideas I would love to know!
Thanks!
I have pet insurance through Banfield (inside Petsmart stores) I have to say that there insurance has been very good. The Vets at Banfield hav been great. I pay $25.00 a month for my dog Ginger. I do still pay for some things that may not be covered. However, 85% of the things she needs are covered. May not be to bad to stop in and take a look.
Kim
I have used the Wellness plans through Banfield also. They are not really considered pet insurance though. They cover the regular routine maintenance for your pet, but have no coverage for emergencies. They do give you a discount for uncovered things, like x-rays, but it is nominal.
I had my dog on it and never had a problem. But my mother in-law had her German Sheppard on it and we had a bad experience. The experience had more to do with the actual vets in our office- she had been limping and we took her in. Then did $600 of x-rays, said it was her hips and arthritis. Then a month later we took her back in because he foot was now swollen. They wanted to do more x-rays and my mother in-law was not willing to pay for them to do it again. She ended up taking her to another vet, who immediately found tumors on her belly (there was draining that was causing her foot to swell). She ended up having to be put down.
Like I said, I feel that it was an issue with the actual vets there (they must not have ever even touched the dog, you could not miss the tumors if you ran your hands down her belly), but even after she was put down, you will still have to pay for the year on your animal.
I have also had a friend that had a dog that was lost; they called and canceled the plan around 5 times before they ever actually canceled it.
Just be sure to get a cancellation in writing, you don’t want to be paying for a few extra months after you canceled. Good luck and I hope your Banfield has great vets.
JoAnne,
Glad to hear you’ve found a company that works for you! I’m also glad to hear that you didn’t give up on pet insurance after having a bad experience with one company. One thing we are trying to do with this blog is to separate companies and figure out what people like and don’t like, and it’s never helpful when people have a bad experience with one company, but then make the general statement that “pet insurance is awful!”.
So, I thank you for your story! And, must admit, I had a good chuckle to hear that you got a check for $0.50! That’s not even worth the envelope and stamp, let alone the time it would take you to go to the bank to cash it!
Kathy,
So sorry to hear about your kitty:-( You will also have to keep us posted as to how PetPlan works out (if for some reason you ever do have to use it…I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you).
Maria,
This is the first I’ve heard of this particular weight loss drug, and am sorry your poor pup (and you) had to go through such an ordeal!
On top of following recommendations on this blog, I would also recommend you visit the Pet Insurance Review website and checking out all of the companies that are out there, along with consumer ratings. I would further recommend comparing coverage, and we have created a tool on our website to compare pet insurance companies online.
Kim,
I wanted to make a point of clarification for the rest of our readers. As Michelle mentioned, Banfield’s program is actually not a form of insurance. Rather, it’s a wellness program that will cover routine check-ups such as teeth cleanings, shots, etc. This may be a great program if you want help budgeting for your pet’s routine coverage, but if someone is looking for coverage on accidents and illnesses then you wouldn’t want to choose Banfield’s program.
Michelle,
I am so sad to hear that your mother-in-law’s pup had to end up being put down. But I do thank you for sharing your experiences, as I think it’s important for all of our readers to hear both the good and the bad, especially if it makes them do some more research before making any final decisions.
I have had my two Maltese insured with the same company for a few years. In April of 2007 it was renewed, without a break in coverage.
In June my older Maltese, a female named Vickie, was seen by the vet’s associate while he was on vacation. Vickie was brought in because she had a growth on the inside roof of her mouth that was pushing her teeth out of alignment. This vet said she thought it was cancer and referred us to an oral/dental specialist.
Because I love my dogs, and was terrified by the word “cancer”, we were there to see him two days later — the soonest appointment I could get. He removed the tumor, reassuring us it was not cancer but a growth caused by tooth roots that had remained in her mouth which broken off either during an extraction or when her baby teeth fell out.
The cost for this was just under $1500. Naturally, I sent the claim in to the insurance company. The claim was denied but I appealed since the insurance is supposed to cover broken teeth and a tooth root is part of the tooth. I was assured I would get a response in 30 days. I didn’t.
I continued to contact the company but it wasn’t until late October that I got a response from them.
It seems that since my regular vet had “noticed” that growth in February, when it was small (unlike his associate, he said it was nothing serious), they called it a pre-existing condition. They told me that on the renewal date, EACH YEAR, anything from the previous year is considered pre-existing. Well, I was not pleased! I was shocked, actually.
I told my vet about the denial. He has brochures for this insurance company in his waiting room — which is an endorsement, of sorts. He called the insurance company and was told the same thing I was: he saw the tumor, though small, in February so it is “pre-existing.” The fact that we had continuous coverage with that company didn’t mean a thing to them. He has since removed those brochures from his offices. He called me back, as upset by this as I was, but he could not get them to change their denial of my claim.
They did give me a small payment “because it took so long to resolve this issue” but I think the whole thing smacks of fraud. The previous year we didn’t have one claim, not one.
Now, quite frankly, I don’t know what to do because Vickie will be 14 in May. It will be difficult to find an insurance company willing to take on a senior dog.
There is one alternative to the traditional insurance. We have a company here that you “join” as a member. Then, when you visit a veterinarian, you get an immediate discount. The problem with that is that our vet doesn’t belong to that program and I was not happy with the vet in my area who did belong.
All in all, I have concluded the pet insurance industry needs regulation similar to the human insurance industry.
Brooke,
You bring up a really interesting point, and one that I actually talk about in my post on pre-existing conditions. It seems to me that many pet insurance companies have started taking advantage of pet owner’s lack of “insurance knowledge”. Because so many people are familiar with human health insurance, when they hear “pre-existing condition” logic would tell them that it was a condition that occured before they got insurance. Now that I can understand, and I would hope that most others do as well (otherwise we’ve got a lot of work to do). What I don’t
understandagree with, is the concept you mention: a condition from a previous policy term becomes pre-existing (even though the condition occured after you got the insurance).I’ve seen some companies go so far as to double the premiums and offer “chronic coverage”. Of course marketing teams spin this to look in your favor, while logic would tell you that chronic conditions should be covered in the first place. Am I right?
If you couldn’t tell, this is one of my hot buttons; while most pet owners would assume that pre-existing conditions would not be covered, I don’t think that anyone would logically conclude that conditions that manifested in a previous policy term would become pre-existing.
And Brooke, your situation seems to even go beyond what I have even become aware of. You didn’t even pay to treat the “broken tooth/lump in mouth”!
Also, hats off to your vet! What a guy to call into the company and try to help you out!
I forgot to make one more comment in regards to the end of Brooke’s post.
All in all, I have concluded the pet insurance industry needs regulation similar to the human insurance industry. Brooke posted a comment on January 8th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Most (not all) pet insurance companies actually are regulated, by each state/province that they are writing policies. Before an admitted (regulated) pet insurance company (or any insurance company) can write policies in a given state/province they must submit it to and be approved by the state’s department of insurance. This basically means that they have to abide by the laws and regulations of the given state.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading through these filings, and let me tell you, they spell out everything! Well, they have to. And also weigh about 5 pounds each. (I will NEVER work for a department of insurance…) And the insurance company must answer all questions and follow all guidelines of the insurance department.
That said, regulated insurance companies have to file their policies and rates and cannot make any changes to either one without first being approved. So, if the company is going to increase their rates and they aren’t currently filed for the rate change, they first must submit the changes and then they are allowed to increase rates. Unless of course, they’re already filed for an age rate increase.
Long story short, more than likely, the company you’re dealing with is probably admitted and therefore regulated by the state that you live in.
I made the unfortunate mistake to get VPI, and I got the mid level coverage. It was a very bad experience. You have to pay upfront… which is ok with me. But getting reimbursed was terrible. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to go back to the vet’s office to have them redo the explanation on the claim form because VPI wouldn’t accept what the vet said the first time! My dog was prone to ear infections and after the first one they wouldn’t cover it again because it is now a pre existing condition. They will cover one or two x rays per year, and that’s it.. if your dog needs three… you’re out of luck. I’ve heard there are much better pet insurances out there, but VPI is the insurance that is marketed so heavily out of the vet’s office! I also found the customer service to be tremendously inept.
This is for Aurora. I also checked with VPI insurance and I found them to be quite high and not offering all the coverage I am looking for.
I have looked at many companies over the years and the one I have had for years is Petshealth Care Plan (also called ASPCA). It works fairly well and it apparently does cover hereditary conditions but not congenital conditions. I have a dachshund that has had two back surgeries. The first surgery occurred before I enrolled him and the second one occurred after enrollment. The surgery was covered without a problem. I like the flat $100 deductible per year because most of my claims seem to be in the $200-$500 range. If the deductible was as high as $500 as some plans recommend, I would never get money back. Also, I liked the lower monthly premium since I have four dogs. However, each situation is different and if I had only one dog I might pick a different company.