To expect my vet to claim their money through my pet insurance?

[Runnerduck34]

My labrador had an accident and dislocated her hip and needs an operation to have it pinned. Total vet bill is likely around 4k and maybe more.
I have pet insurance, never claimed before and mistakenly thought that having pet insurance would take all the worry and stress out of vets bills, how wrong was I!
Despite my insurers accepting claims direct from vets, my vets are refusing to do this and need payment immediately up front and I will need to claim the money back myself from insurers.
I asked the vet if they would please complete insurance form immediately so i could claim money back asap they said they had a back log and my form wouldn't be completed for at least 2 weeks!!
This is a huge bill and we are struggling to pay it using savings/credit card and I wonder what would happen if you couldn't pay up front- the insurance wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on! I would be happy to pay a deposit and sign an agreement promising to pay if insurers didn't pay out but expecting full immediate payment seems unfair.
If I had a car accident I wouldn't be expected to fork out thousands up front, so aibu expecting vets to claim direct from insurers?

*I value my pet’s life equally to my own"

Really?

@speakout , what is so strange about that ?

@RabbitsAreBrave

I work in and own a vets. We do direct claims for some companies and we are generally very quick at getting forms off. Even so this means that we are currently owed £17000 by insurance companies for work that we have already done.

That is a massive risk for a small business to take. We still have to pay staff, rent, electric, rates, equipment hire, training. We never know for sure if the insurance will pay until the money is in our account.

Some insurance companies are great. Some are terrible. You would not believe the time and effort that goes into chasing insurance companies to pay or chasing clients to pay when the insurance hasn’t covered something. In fact we are currently considering employing someone just to deal with insurance claims. That’s a whole salary just to chase insurance companies for money for work we have done.

YAB totally unreasonable to expect a business to take on £4K of debt on your behalf. Think of pet insurance like travel insurance. When I needed my travel insurance I had to pay out up front and then claim it back. Pet insurance is the same.

Agreements to pay if the insurer doesn’t are not worth the paper they are written on. Just because you say you will pay later doesn’t mean you actually will. All vets have been burned by people saying that many times over. Would you work for someone and accept being told that you would get paid 6 weeks later?

Does the practice offer interest free payment through a 3rd party? We have sometimes done that if we will not accept a direct claim.

I hope your dog recovers quickly from surgery

With travel insurance, when it's a significant claim for Medical Expenses (such as in the case of hospital admission/surgery/more than the cost of a GP and prescription), the Insurer will confirm cover at the time and handle the bills direct, leaving the claimant with just the excess the pay.

Approving cover and making overseas payments for medical bills incurred in this way was my job for a very long time. If you check your most recent travel policy wording, you'll have an emergency number to contact if such things happen whilst you're on holiday.

@speakout

*I value my pet’s life equally to my own"

Really?

Yes.

@RabbitsAreBrave
No-one said anything about working for free. What we are talking about is being flexible in how payment is made such as going straight to insurance or agreeing a payment plan with said client. I don’t have 4K in my bank should anything happen to my dog, does that make me an irresponsible owner? I like to think not.

As an ex pet owner and One who never had insurance I am surprised by this op. In my ignorance I too would assume it would work as car insurance does. Obviously you check policies but not sure how you check how different vets choose to claim.
This thread has been a useful warning.
It goes without saying that to suddenly find thousands of pounds is impossible for many owners with insurance and thinking that would cover it.

@MitziK thats very reassuring, if travel insurance really did work in the same way as pet insurance you would be in big trouble if you needed expensive treatment abroad!
@RabbitsareBrave its great you have such clear signage, if my vets had the same I would have ensured I got insurance with one of their approved insurers, or at least been forewarned if I choose to insure with another company, but my vets don't have any signage and I have been told don't deal direct with any insurer.

For those saying its unreasonable to expect vets to wait for their money, isn't the same true for me if they wont complete the insurance form when I pay and therefore delay my insurance claim for several weeks due to their administration backlog?
They charge for completing the insurance form . No one expects vets to work for free. They are running a business, I doubt they pay all their suppliers immediately, I suspect they are invoiced by them and are given a month to pay. If they won't deal direct with insurers , would it be so hard for them to complete the insurance form when a customer pays and allow their customers 28 days days to pay so they have time to claim through their insurers? Yes they might have to chase up some invoices but thats part of running a business surely?
Seriously there has be be a better way, its crazy its not more joined up and there doesn't appear to be much, if any, cooperation or goodwill between vets and insurers. I must admit I thought vets would be pro insurance as I thought it enabled them to carry out life saving procedures that owners wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. However it seems you have to be in the fortunate position to have the means to pay for expensive treatment upfront before making a claim and I don't think vets or insurers make that clear enough.

@Runnerduck34

When you claim on your car insurance you don't get the money the same day the car is written off, you have to wait. It's the same in veterinary practice - the insurance doesn't pay out on the day of surgery. and as most vets are small businesses and the quality of pet insurance varies enormously, most vets will not do direct claims (with the exception of petplan.
I'm a vet. My own pets are insured with petplan for this (as well as other ) reasons.

The vet practice is not responsible for covering your financial responsibilities.
Human travel medical expenses are generally not claimed by small businesses so there's more flexibility. There are a number of pet insurance companies that are notorious within the industry for not paying out and it's not worth the risk for vet practices to take on these companies that's up to the owner as they've chosen the insurance. Vets will generally direct claim from the no-quibble insurers.

However it seems you have to be in the fortunate position to have the means to pay for expensive treatment upfront before making a claim and I don't think vets or insurers make that clear enough

An empty credit card will give you at least a month's grace before interest charges and paying the minimum will buy you a bit more time for a modest cost. A free solution available to almost everyone unless previous bad debt history and what they're designed for.

I 100% agree that vets should be up from about their insurance systems when you sign up. My vet have notices up saying they only claim from Petplan direct and with other insurers you need to pay upfront and also pay an admin fee for filling in forms. When I came to insure my new kitten I chose Petplan for that reason.

@mrt1981 yes it does make you an irresponsible owner. I work for a veterinary practice, I have pet insurance but I also make sure I have an empty credit card for emergency bills like that.

The problem is that even if people have an approved insurer that the vet will deal direct with they may still not pay out if the owner has forgotten to tell them about anything that might be deemed to be a preexisting condition. I wouldn't want several thousand pounds not paid and then having to go back and chase an owner who may simply try and walk away from it. If they did that with everyone the practice could be severely out of pocket for a long time.

I have paid out thousands directly to my vet and they submit the forms and typically I get the money back within a month.

When I went to a specialist hospital where we were looking at potential weeks of treatments and many thousands of pounds for costs they did a pre authorisation with petplan and let me pay just the excess. However, this was only because they got the ok from my insurer but with a big caveat that if they didn't payout I would be liable. They also mentioned that they only do this with a few select insurers. When they got the pre authorisation they did say they had spoken to them and were happy that they would 'most likely' cover the treatment but we have claimed since he was a puppy so his full medical history was already known and up to date with our insurer so a safer bet of them paying out.

You haven’t said which insurer you’re with, OP? If it’s not PetPlan, there is little point looking for another vet. Most of them will only allow direct claims if you’re with PetPlan, and possibly one other insurer (whose name escapes me). There are lots of insurers who will exploit every loophole to avoid paying out (as I once discovered, to my cost).

I think PetPlan, Direct Line and possibly NFU (if they still do domestic pets) mostly get counted to work for direct payments.

Vets have to be careful doing anything that might be construed as recommending a particular insurance company as that would require them to be authorised by the Financial Services Ombudsman so they're treading a fine line.

The notorious one is quite clever at changing its name to move on from its non/glacial paying reputation!

Vet practices have been struggling as they were basically not open for anything other than major emergencies during lockdown and it's not a cheap business to run as as there are a lot of fixed costs.

@mrt1981

A few things to say about payment plans..

Most practices will on occasion extend payment plans and, believe me, pretty much all vets would love to be able to hand them out to anyone who asks. (We actually genuinely do love animals believe it or not!!) The reality, however, is that when a practice agrees a payment plan we know than a large proportion simply do not pay. This is not sustainable in large numbers for a functioning business which you want to be there for you and your pets, day or night with qualified, alert staff and all of the up to date equipment and drugs your pet may need.

Secondly, there is a high chance that the vet dealing with your pet is not in a position to offer any such thing. I have been working as a vet for over 20 years and as I do not own a practice nor am I in a managerial position I am unable to offer payment plans. I can ask management (and do) but I cannot make that decision myself. It is out of my hands.

I do try to advise people as much as possible on choosing insurance and suggest they check the details of any policy with respect to amount covered, excesses etc when comparing policies. Moving forwards I will try to find time to also ask they consider how they would cover any delay in payment. As above though we are limited as we cannot recommend (we're not insurance brokers..)

Moving forwards I would suggest it is risky to rely on your vets offering a payment plan in the event your pet needs expensive care. Other things you could do to prepare for the worst eventualities would be to have a conversation with your practice - many DO accept direct claims, at least from some insurers. If no direct claim from your own (or any) insurance can be made a dedicated "just in case" credit card is, as PP suggested, an ideal option to bridge the gap. Even having a family member you know you could ask for a short term loan in a true emergency is a plan.

For those in significant financial hardship the PDSA and RSPCA have clinics which you may qualify to attend. Some local animal welfare charities may offer some help in emergencies too. It's important to remember they have limited funds though and cannot help everyone.

Thinking ahead is really important. When it really matters and an animal needs urgent care it is truly heartbreaking for money to be a deciding factor. Planning for theses scenarios is part and parcel of being a pet owner and not the responsibility of the attending vet. Remember too that if your practice uses a dedicated out-of-hours service you should check their policies too.

Regardless of what arrangements you put in place I hope you never need them!

It also needs to be said that if you need an emergency OOH vet very few small practices now run their own overnight cover and if you have to go to the overnight cover vet you have to actually pay a fair amount upfront and definitely pay the remainder immediately . Hence you do need credit available at short notice .