31/05/2024
With the current increase in the cost of living, we are aware that it is becoming harder to find large sums of money when medical treatment is required. This is why we always recommend taking out a pet insurance policy. However, not all insurance policies are the same. Some will leave you with an inadequate level of cover, exclusions from one year to the next or hike the premiums when you make a claim. We fill in upwards of 60 insurance claims a month for our clients and we have a good idea of which companies are helpful to our clients and of problems with different types of policy. We are always happy to discuss policy types and pitfalls. Most insurance companies make a point of telling their clients that they will pay direct to the practice. It is important to realise that we, like most practices, do not accept direct claims, as there is no way for us to be sure we will get paid. If the premium has not been kept up, there is an exclusion on a particular condition or the level of cover is too low or even if the client phones the insurance company and asks them not to pay us, we will not get paid. The only insurance company that will give us this information is Petplan. We will therefore always ask you, our client, to pay the bill and claim the money back. We are sorry that we cannot accept direct claims but as a result we can keep our fees lower and spend more time looking after your pets rather than on admin.
If your insurance policy is with Petplan, you have a large one-off bill and your pet is under 10 years of age (due to the excess calculation) we can occasionally make an exception to allow a direct claim by filling in a pre-authorisation. However, we will only agree to do this with Petplan, it cannot be done in an emergency because it takes several days and it is at our discretion.
Thank you for your understanding.
