Your Pet Insurance Guide

Most Expensive Cat Breeds

As I've stated before, data compiled from pet insurance companies based on claims they've paid provide pet owners with some interesting statistics. Trupanion recently revealed in an article the 5 most expensive cat breeds to own based on claims filed during the past decade. 

Pet Insurance Can Make Financial Decisions Easier In Pets With A Serious Illness Or Injury

I ran across this article about several cases where pet insurance did or would have made a difference in either these pet's lives and/or their owners pocketbook. 

As the article mentions, there have been a number of new companies enter the market in the past seven years and many of the objections that pet owners had for not getting pet insurance for their pet no longer apply. Many of the companies now cover chronic and hereditary conditions, and as you can see from the article, the reimbursements can be significant.

I wrote a blog post recently about the best way to get a quote for your pet - especially since there are about a dozen companies that offer policies in the U.S.

Embrace Pet Insurance Claim Example - Cushing's Disease

Cushing's is a chronic disease and this pet owner will be facing ongoing monitoring and lifelong medication to keep the symptoms under control. The good news is that pet insurance will pay most of the expense!

I ran across this claim example on the Embrace blog. 

There are a couple of lessons to learn from this example.

1. Make sure your pet insurance policy has coverage for chronic illnesses beyond the intial year when it is first diagnosed. With some companies, this is optional coverage. Also, make sure their coverage for chronic diseases is adequate.
2. Embrace makes coverage for prescription medications optional. I would encourgage you to get this coverage because, as you can see in this example, the ongoing medication for this patient will be significant.

See a previous blog post dedicated to chronic conditions.

Top 10 Most Expensive Pet Health Conditions

I received this information in an e-mail today. I appreciate the fact that pet insurance companies have a database of information that allows them to search for statistics such as this. This information can be helpful to pet owners who are contemplating whether to get pet insurance.

Nation’s Largest Pet Insurer Reveals Most Common $1,000+ Claims

Brea, Calif. (June 28, 2011) — Few pet owners imagine they will ever have to spend more than $1,000 for treatment of a single pet health incident or condition. Unfortunately, data from Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. (VPI), the nation’s oldest and largest provider of pet health insurance, reveals that $1,000 veterinary bills may be more common than expected. 

PetPlan Claims Experience

By Desiree Nascimento, June 2011

My Kerry Blue Terrier, Kieran, was a healthy dog all her life so when I enrolled her with PetPlan in October 2009. I wondered if it would be worth it. At the time Kieran was seven years old and her last physical gave her a clean bill of health.

Three months later in January 2010, Kieran started intermittent vomiting. I thought perhaps her food was the problem so I gradually changed her kibble, but the vomiting persisted.

Pet Insurance Company Statistics Can Serve As Helpful Reminders To Pet Owners

I've been posting lately several articles that are very informative that arose out of statistical analysis of pet insurance claims. Today's article has to do with claims for foreign body ingestion. It is amazing what pets can and will swallow. There have actually been contests in veterinary journals where veterinarians send in x-rays of some unbelievable things that pets have ingested.

This should serve as a reminder and warning to do your part to prevent your pet from swallowing something that could cause you to make a costly visit to your veterinarian or local emergency clinic. Even then, accidents can still happen. I find that pet owners sometimes don't seem too concerned, when they should be, when their pet swallows something - especially things like human medications. Sometimes they actually give it to their pet thinking if it's good for them, then it ought to help their pet also! We must remember that every species metabolizes medications differently and what is a wonder drug for one may be fatal in another.

Reassurance For Superstitious Pet Owners

When I saw this article, I was reminded of something that happened my senior year in vet school when I was on the large animal rotation. Isn't it weird how you never forget some things? Anyway, the large animal clinician took several of us out to a farm in Alabama on a call to castrate a pig. When we arrived and informed the farmer why we were there, his reply was, "You'll have to come back some other time; it's a full moon." Really?

VPI analyzed their claims records and came up with the 10 most dangerous days for a pet in 2010. Surprisingly, days of a full moon and Friday the 13th were below average for claims.

Pet Owner's Opinions About Pet Insurance

I really hesitated to even bring this article and all the comments that follow it up for you to read or discuss, but it runs the gamut of pet owner's opinions about pet insurance. Since I visit pet forums frequently, I've seen all this before, but it might be interesting reading for some of you. Some pet owners point out in the comments what I will say below, but you'll find that some people think that all insurance is a scam, especially pet insurance.

Granted, the customer service by this company left a lot to be desired, but as is often the case with pet owners who have bought pet insurance and then had a claim denied, they reach the conclusion that pet insurance just isn't worth it. This is why I stress so much to know what you are buying when you buy it. This is your responsibility as a pet owner and it is usually available in black and white in something called the "policy."

Therefore, do your due diligence and research, research, research. You will be much more likely to be a happy and satisfied customer if you do. 

Pet Insurance For The Accident Prone

I ran across this article today giving some statistics about breeds that seem to naturally be accident prone and warrant emergency visits to the veterinarian. One thing to note from this article is that these visits can be quite costly.

PetPlan Reimbursement Over $25,000

I just read an article about a $25,000 reimbursement by PetPlan over a 3 year period of time for a dog with hip dysplasia. This is considered a hereditary problem and not covered by all pet insurance companies. PetPlan is one of several companies that do now cover hereditary conditions.

Pet Insurance Claims for Cancer Treatment

Today, I'm writing a teaching post. I am including a couple of claims from Embrace for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Although we think of cancer as being primarily a problem in older pets, notice that both of these pets were young. 

The thing I appreciate about these examples is that Embrace gave detailed information about the claim and how much the pet owner was reimbursed.

 The first claim was on Maggie, a 2 year old Dachshund with a rectal tumor. The second claim was on Coney, a 3 year old cat with lymphoma.

Healthy Paws Comes Through With Claim Reimbursement

Here's a story about Bu's patellar luxation and how having pet insurance with Healthy Paws helped pay for the surgery. It seems that a day at the park aggrevated Bu's patellar luxation. What makes this significant is that Healthy Paws is one of several companies that now cover hereditary and/or congenital conditions. Some companies catagorize patellar (kneecap) luxation as either hereditary or congenital and don't cover it. This brings up once again the importance of getting a policy that does cover hereditary/congenital conditions and preferably from a company that offers more than token coverage. With most companies, the policy must have been effective before the hereditary/congenital problem was diagnosed.

A Recommendation In Favor Of Pet Insurance

I'll let this letter speak for itself.

Pet Insurance Comes In Handy

I came across a video blog that summarizes many of the points you should consider when deciding whether to get pet insurance for your pet and also how to decide on a company and and policy for your pet.

I don't think the intent of this video was necessarily to recommend Trupanion because they didn't look at all the companies that offer pet insurance in the U.S. I think the main take away from this video is to show the importance of getting unrestricted coverage for hereditary conditions. Getting this coverage didn't cost any more in monthly premiums, and paid off big time when a claim was filed. As many of you know, getting coverage for hereditary conditions is one of the 4 factors I consider most important when selecting a policy for your pet. Some companies don't offer coverage at all for hereditary conditions. Some offer restricted coverage like VPI and Pets Best in this video. Then, there are several that offer unrestricted coverage up to the maximums of the policy.

Some of the total costs given in the video (based on per-incident or annual maximums, deductible and copay) are inaccurate because Trupanion also doesn't cover veterinary examination fees which would add to the out-of-pocket costs somewhat. But, the overall message of the video is very well presented. 

Another lesson from the video that I'd like to point out to pet owners is that good coverage can be found for an affordable and competitive price, but it will require you to thoroughly research all the companies, not just these four companies, to pick which one is best for you and your pet.

Top 10 Reasons Pet Owners Take Their Pet To The Veterinarian

The top 3 reasons that pets are taken to the veterinarian according to claims submitted by VPI pet insurance company are often related to the same underlying problem. They are:

1. Ear infection
2. Skin allergy
3. Skin infection/hot spot

"I can't imagine how my pet got an ear infection!" is a comment I hear from pet owners. An acute ear infection caused by a foreign body in the ear canal or getting too much water in the ear canal when giving a bath is actually uncommon. Most ear infections seen by veterinarians are secondary to an underlying allergy, most notably something in the environment like seasonal pollens or a food allergy. These problems are often chronic and you'll likely be faced with occasional flare-ups the rest of the pet's life. It's not uncommon for dogs with allergies to also have secondary ear infections or skin infections (pyoderma).

Dogs, especially, usually first show symptoms of allergies when they are young. Symptoms often include itchy skin manifested by excessive scratching or licking of feet or skin, shaking their head, rubbing or scratching their ears, reddened skin or a rash. Sometimes, you may have several visits to your veterinarian for the same problem over and over and receive the same treatment e.g. steroids and/or antibiotics, ear ointments, etc. If you find this happening, you and your veterinarian should try to find the underlying problem (usually, what's the pet allergic to?) and treat it rather than treating the symptoms over and over with medications that can have serious side effects with chronic use.

These are among the most common problems that veterinarians see - starting when the pet is young and requiring some sort of treatment the rest of the pet's life resulting in significant cumulative costs. Therefore, you should consider getting pet insurance when your pet is young (puppy or kitten) before symptoms start so that they will be covered by insurance. 

Tupanion's 5 Most Expensive Claims Paid In 2010

I expect that people will react in different ways to the size of these claims paid by Trupanion. What is your comment?

 

Trupanion Claim

I'm going to start posting examples of claims that I can find that the various pet insurance companies have paid to let pet owners know potential problems that pets can get and how much it costs to treat them. Pay attention to the age of the pet, breed, etc. as it could also apply to your own pet. I'm going to group them under the categories (see list in right sidebar) by the company name (in this case Trupanion )and "Claim Examples."

http://tiny.cc/zsqjz

Pet Insurance Claim for Intervertebral Disk Disease in a Dachshund

I ran across this example of a claim for surgery on a condition common in Dachshunds - intervertebral disk disease (slipped disk).

Since this is a Trupanion claim, I want to point out several things about it. Trupanion doesn't pay for examination fees. The examination fees in this example are likely from a specialist. Depending on the length of hospitalization, daily examination fees can add up. Therefore, many pet owners who purchase a policy from Trupanion will select the $0 deductible and let the examination fees act as their deductible (as the pet owner did in this case). Trupanion allows pet owners to select their own deductible between $0 and $1000. Remember, however, it is a per-incident deductible, so you want to keep it low as a general rule.

Pet Insurance Claims For Young Pets - Prevention Is The Key

It is interesting what the most common claims are for different age pets. This article reinforces that many problems that young pets get can be prevented. It also reinforces the advice to get pet insurance when your pet is young. Many pet owners don't see the need for insurance when their pet is young and the picture of health. But, you never know...

The link to insurance comparisons at the end of the article is for British companies.

Pet Insurance Allows Pet To Get Needed Surgery

This is an illustration how pet insurance is supposed to work. Pet needed expensive surgery. Because the pet's owner had pet insurance, she opted for the surgery paying for the bill with a credit card. The dog recovered and she got her reimbursement check from Pets Best insurance company before the credit card bill was due.

The title to the article is a bit misleading. I don't think it means that the spinal problem would have been fatal to the dog, but that the pet owner may not have been able to afford the surgery if she didn't have pet insurance, and might have had to opt for euthanasia.

Pet Insurance Claim Examples From Embrace

I read pet forums weekly and pet insurance frequently gets negative comments with people saying it is just not worth having. After over two years of researching pet insurance, some of the criticism is warranted because there are both good and bad policies that pet owners can select from. The key is selecting the best ones.

On Embrace Pet Insurance's blog, they are focusing on the topic of cancer in pets this month. Below are a couple of links to actual claims that Embrace paid for pets that were treated for cancer:

Mast cell tumor

Anal gland adenocarcinoma

I just wanted you to know that for some pet owners, pet insurance is worth it.

Claims for Grape/Raisin Toxicity

I found an article today about claims that Trupanion has paid for this common toxicity in dogs and cats. Many people are surprised to learn that grapes and raisins are potentially toxic to pets. I've actually had clients volunteer that they occasionally offer a few grapes to their dog. As you can see, treatment for this toxicity can be expensive. Of course, it's best to prevent this potentially lethal toxicity by not feeding your dog or cat grapes or raisins.

Ok, time to fess up. How many of you have fed your pet grapes or raisins? How many of you didn't know it was potentially toxic to your pet?

PurinaCare Comes Through With Big Claim Reimbursement

I am including a recent blog post on the PurinaCare Blog that is very interesting.

There are at least 3 things that pet owners can learn from this true story:

• You never know when your pet could be facing a serious life-threatening (and therefore expensive) crisis. Here is the story of a dog that had a relatively routine surgery that ended up with unexpected complications. What would you have done if your pet faced this sort of crisis with a bill of over $18,000? Would having a pet insurance company help with a substantial part of the bill make a difference in your life or that of your pet?
• Perhaps you can see the importance of recognizing the differences in pet insurance policies. PurinaCare has an annual maximum limit of $20,000 with no "per-incident" limit. If you have pet insurance now, check your policy and see what the insurance company would have paid on this claim and what you would have had to pay. If you don't yet have pet insurance, but you are contemplating it, let this be a lesson that you should get the highest annual maximum that you can afford, and beware of policies with a per-incident maximum.
• Since most pet insurance policies require the pet owner to pay the veterinarian in full and then seek reimbursement from the insurance company, even if you had pet insurance, would you have been able to do that in this case? I suspect that paying $18,000 out-of-pocket is out of reach for many pet owners. You would have to have money in the bank or available credit. Many pet owenrs coordinate a pet insurance policy with a CareCredit card that provides them with no interest payment options. When the pet insurance company reimbursement arrives, they can then pay off the credit card. Some companies will pay the veterinarian directly if the pet owner pays the veterinarian the deductible and co-pay and for any non-covered expenses. But, your veterinarian and the pet insurance company must agree to this type of arrangement. Be sure and ask a pet insurance company if they have provisions to do this in case of a large claim like this one. You might also ask your veterinarian if they would be willing to accept payment from your insurance company if such a situation as this case occurs. However, it is unlikely that your veterinarian or the insurance company will be willing to do this with smaller claims.