Haven Veterinary Practice Recommends Pet Insurance - Are You Covered?
Why insure your pet?
Pet insurance can offer real peace of mind that your animal can receive the best possible treatment should he or she be injured or become unwell.
Insurance helps with the cost of unexpected veterinary treatment when you may not have the funds available otherwise.
What type of cover do you need?
Lifetime policies:
These provide a maximum amount for vets fees each year as long as you renew your policy.
- You can continue to claim for the same condition for the life of your pet, as long as you renew your policy each year.
- Provides cover for ongoing illness such as diabetes or skin disease.
Maximum benefit policies:
- Provide a set amount of vets fees for each condition.
- No time limit as long as your policy is renewed each year.
- A condition is permanently excluded (no longer covered) once the maximum benefit is reached, which ever comes first.
Time limited policies:
- Covers a claimable condition for a maximum period of 12 months.
- You cannot continue to claim for conditions that last longer than 12 months.
- A condition is permanently excluded once the maximum benefit or 12 months is reached.
What does Haven Veterinary Practice recommend?
As a veterinary surgery we are unable to recommend any one insurance company. Our advice would be, if you are financially able, always buy a lifetime policy especially if you have a pedigree pet or a large dog.
Although time limited policies are generally cheaper through our experience we have found they are often disappointing for our clients in their time of need.
However even a basic time limited policy is always better than not having any insurance cover at all.
A guide to claiming on your pet insurance
If your pet is unwell or requires non-elective surgery, you may wish to claim on your pet insurance.
There are two ways that your insurance can pay out –direct to vet payments or a payment to reimburse you for a bill.
Reimbursement payments.
With reimbursement payments, you pay the bills at the time of treatment or a procedure and then claim the amount back from your insurance company. This is usually once the treatment is completed or less than 30 days from the start of treatment.
Most insurance claims require the input of the veterinary practice, here at Haven our administration team are responsible for the completion of the required claim documents alongside the veterinary surgeons. The requirements vary from company to company on how to claim, many of the insurance companies have now moved over to digital claims, whilst there are still some that require a paper claims form.
However your insurance company handles their claims, please ensure you have notified them of your intention to make a claim so we can receive the required link to start the claiming process. If your insurance company requires a completed paper claim form, you will need to complete and sign the owner section prior to sending.
Once the claim is submitted and accepted by your insurance company, they will reimburse you minus any excess and deductions.
Direct payments.
This is where your insurance company pay us directly, minus any excess as well as other deductions (such as admin fees, food and routine costs, flea treatment etc).
In order for us to accept a direct payment, we will need advance notification of your request in order to carry out the necessary checks to satisfy our requirements.
Therefore as soon as you are aware of a condition or procedure that you would like your insurance company to settle directly with us, please email your request and policy schedule to reception@havenvets.co.uk and a member of our administration team will be in touch to discuss further.
Please note, we will only accept direct payments that have been pre-arranged.
There may be circumstances in which we are not able to accept payment via your insurance company, in this case you will need to pay for the treatment and claim back for the cost as above. Should this not be possible please contact the practice regarding payment options.
Please be aware we are unable to advise you on whether your claim will be successful. It is possible your insurance company may decline your claim, and refuse payment. If you are in any doubt please discuss your propective claim with your provider.
If you are concerned, we recommend a pre-authorisation claim- this is where we send your insurance company information regarding the proposed treatment and they assess your claim before treatment. Please note not all insurance compaines provide this service.
