What happens if you can't pay the vet bills?

[midnightvelvet01]

Just curious really, my cat is insured but the vets won't claim from Petplan insurance themselves, instead I have to pay the bills then hand the Petplan forms to the vets & they send them off, then I get a refund minus the excess.

What happens if my cat needs something that costs thousands & I don't have the money upfront to pay for it?

That does seem a silly way to do it, but presumably if the money is definitely coming in from the insurance you could get some sort of short term loan. Alternatively go to a different vet that is happy to claim direct from the insurance.

Our vet will agree a payment plan.

Firstly you talk to your vet, many will not routinely offer direct claims due to slowness of insurance companies to pay (3 months is not uncommon) and not knowing the individual policy exclusions, but in exceptional circumstance may do a direct claim.
Small independent practices tend to be more likely to help as they don't one size fits all protocols to follow.

Change your vet. Mine deals with Petplan directly.

Mine deals with Petplan directly if it's over £500.