A couple of Watch Outs on Pet Health Insurance

I was reading this post over after it went live and I wanted to add a few comments for clarification purposes. First of all, I want everyone to know that I work for PurinaCare as a marketing consultant and Veterinary Spokesperson. That's probably why my emotions run a lttle high on this subject. When I read articles that are critical of the entire Pet Health Insurance Industry and I know these criticisms don't apply to PurinaCare I get a little defensive. You know what I mean. It's like somebody talkin trash about your dog or your kid or your spouse.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is basically, Buyer Beware. When considering insurance for your pet make sure you know exactly what it is you are buying so when you go to make a claim you are reasonable sure what you are going to get in return. That's all.

I've recovered from the crabbiness that led to my last post on this topic. It can be very frustrating to deal with mis-information over and over again and when it comes to the topic of Pet Health Insurance there's no shortage of that out there.

I think it's very important for readers to understand what they are buying when they start looking at insurance for their pets. If you don't carefully read the information provided - you may be in for some unpleasant surprises when you go to file a claim.

We tried very hard to make our PurinaCare™ policies simple to understand.   

We heard loudly and clearly from pet owners that they were confused when they researched insurance. I actually went out and did some research myself, too. It's really bad when a veterinarian can't figure out what is going to be covered, which is what happened to me after reading the details on some insurance plans I've seen.

One of my chief pet peeves is confusion over deductibles. The deductible is the amount you pay for veterinary services before the insurance kicks in. With PurinaCare policies you can choose your deductible. Lower deductibles have higher monthly premiums and higher deductibles result in lower monthly premiums.

The higher deductible policies can help protect pet owners from a large unexpected veterinary bill and give them the peace of mind that they can provide the best available care.

PurinaCare policies include one annual deductible. That means you pay it once and after that you get reimbursed for 80% of covered expenses for the rest of the year. My pet peeve is that some companies have PER INCIDENT deductibles.

Say your cat gets in a fight and develops an infection and an abscess from the bite wound. You would pay the deductible and the insurance would kick in if the bill exceeded the deductible amount. If that same cat develops a urinary tract infection the next month you'd have to pay the deductible again for that new incident. Per incident deductibles make for cheaper insurance premiums but they also can lead to frustration on the part of the pet owner and less money paid out in claims.

Another pet peeve of mine is the whole "we cover this and we cover that" issue. It pays to read the fine print on this one. We worked hard to make PurinaCare policies as comprehensive as possible. We clearly identify what we do cover and what we exclude. And when we say it's covered, it's covered the same way up to the annual $20,000 limit.

For instance we cover behavior modification if it's performed by a licensed veterinarian in a clinical setting. We also cover pharmaceuticals needed too manage behavior issues. You pay the annual deductible and then we pay 80% of the covered charges up to the annual $20,000 limit if need be.

One of our competitors is quick to point out that they cover behavior, too. I won't mention them by name but if you go to their web site you'll see that the "coverage" is a bit different than ours.

Other insurance offerring may cover behavior as well but make sure you understand the conditions and limits that apply to their coverage. They may have limits to their coverage that won't provide the long term care you may require and if you don't understand that going in you may be dissapointed

If you buy their least expensive policy (it has a $100 per incident deductible by the way) you get a once  in the lifetime of your pet benefit of $40 for behavior modification. That might cover one consultation with the doctor about your problem. That's it, over, done with, you're on your own after that.

This is the type of coverage that gives Misunderstandings like this have the potential to give the entire pet health insurance a black eye in the view of many pet owners and consumer advocates. So be sure to study what you are about to buy. We've tried to make it easy and intuitive. And if it's not, you can always call and talk to a real person.