Do I need to pay?

[LifeIsGreatForUnicorns]

My dog ate Christmas cake. Had to go to emergency vets.
paid £592 for dog to be sick - had to pay at vets directly as it was out of hours…
no problems with this (was a very small piece of cake but you never know!)

Have now claimed via insurance (petplan)
so submitted the receipt (that I had paid directly to the vets) directly to PetPlan and now the out of hours vets I used have said I owe them £35 for them processing my claim….(not sure what they processed as I paid them directly on the night)

YANBU - i shouldn’t pay the £35 to the out of hours vet for doing nothing and challenge the charge
YABU - I should pay the £35 charge for them processing the claim

Definitely challenge it. CFs

It's a charge for a member of the team to collate all the financial and clinical information in the format the insurance company requires it - this will include a full clinical history. It is a time consuming process which is not accounted for in the clinical fees you have paid.

I can understand it if I hadn’t paid directly and they needed information to process the claim for PetPlan to pay them but I had all of the information…it clearly stated on the invoice that I sent to PetPlan the injection given, the charcoal medicine etc.
I wouldn’t mind so much but only got 80% of the cost back from Petplan and I feel this is taking the mick!

Surely it should have been included on the initial claim.
What is the charge for if they didn’t ‘process’ anything or enter the claim on your behalf. I’d certainly challenge it.

The claim processing fee is probably for the paperwork they’ll need to provide.

It’s standard practice for vets to charge an admin fee , normally they will be expected to complete a form from the insurance company to confirm what you have said in your claim

This isn’t standard in my experience - currently having weekly vet bills for chemo. We were paying up front then claiming but now they’re direct claiming. An extra £35 bill for claiming each week would be insane imo.

It sounds expensive. Ive just had my vet do a claim for petplan, including a pre-approval for further treatment AND they processed the claim, and they charged me £13

I would assume that the vets office was asked by the insurance company to provide more detailed records than just an itemized invoice. They’ll have wanted medical records that indicated why the treatments listed on the invoice were medically necessary.

It’s not particularly generous of the after-hours vets to charge extra for this but they’re a business. I can’t imagine it being in your best interest to block the insurance company’s processing of your claim over £35.

ETA: our regular vet doesn’t charge an admin fee for things like this because they make the money back in customer loyalty. After-hours vets don’t work on that same model - their customers are usually there because they need the nearest open vet and can’t take the time to shop around.

It sounds like it might be an error on their part - have you discussed with them?

I have to pay my vet a claim processing fee everytime I put a claim through.

This has been when I used to do the form with petplan online as well as when the vet does it instead because either way the vet will be asked to provide information for the claim.

The cost sounds about right to me for an out of hours emergency vet visit because I think a few years ago I had to pay around £25ish and costs have risen since. My own vet charges a lot less for claims processing.

If you’re having an ongoing treatment then they won’t have to submit a new claim each time, they can just submit more invoices as a continuation of the same claim (which generally is quite a quick process).

In answer to the OP, generally to submit a claim a member of staff has to go through the clinical history / invoices, allocate the relevant costs to the claim, and sometimes liase with the insurance company by email (they frequently email asking for more information or clarification, often something obscure like ‘is this condition related to the condition in 2021’). It’s quite time consuming and bigger practices may actually employ a specific staff member to do it, so that charge is to pay their wages; so I’d say yes, you received a chargeable service from a business and so you should pay for that. It does sound like your visit/claim were quite straightforward, but generally it’s a standard fee because it’s not always obvious which claims will be more demanding.

£592!!!! That seems expensive on its own?!

True but we’ve claimed for two separate things and never paid £35 admin. With pet plan our vet (and the cancer specialist we saw in September) has an automated system and both said pet plan was the easiest to claim from. The specialist was a massive vet hospital so that was a separate claim for diagnostics. No fee for that either.

My friend’s dog ate a pack of mince pies including the foil.. £895 later 😳

It's rubbish, but the only thing that matters is the contract/paperwork you signed by going to that vet. If the fee is part of their T&C's they are entitled to it and it's not up to you to decide whether the fee is or isn't reasonable.

What does the vets terms and conditions say?

I had to go to emergency vets over Xmas. While we were waiting to see the Vet I checked petplan and the t&c's. It clearly states there that if you want your vet to do the forms to help with/start the claim that it'll probably cost you.
So pay your bill.

Different practices have different fee structures - for instance in one practice you might pay £60 for the consult but it’s 20 minutes and they will do a nail clip / anal glands / take blood during the consult if needed for free; in another practice their consult might be £45 but it’s 10 minutes and any tests/services are extra.

If they don’t charge for insurance forms, then it’s being absorbed by increasing fees elsewhere, because it does take time and staff don’t work for free.

I personally think separating the charge for insurance claims is fair, because then those who aren’t insured, and are footing the bill themselves, don’t have to subsidise it.

I paid £631 for my dog to be seen boxing day, that's for the appt, an abdo ultrasound and a painkilling injection...

Sure, but they need to be transparent about their charges.

I just can't believe these costs and my dad was a vet.
In Ireland we paid 180 Euro for an emergency goat cesearian on a Saturday night in the goat's shed. The vet was here for over an hour. Antibiotics, ruminating balance and special milk for baby with a home visit and operation, for 180. Kid and mum made full recovery too.

The only time I’ve paid an admin fee is when the vets were claiming direct. I’d challenge it.

Wow!!
Our dog has a spinal problem and had an acute flare up a couple of months ago. Out of hours visit, painkilling injection and a months worth of 2 lots of oral painkillers.
£220.
Referral to nuerologist at a specialist animal hospital. A one hour consultation, blood tests and 2 months worth of painkillers. £315

They had to operate and keep in over night.