Pet Insurance

Advances in veterinary medicine have increased the availability of new drugs and medical technology to diagnose and treat pets.   These advances are often expensive and although of course beneficial to your pet, can lead to increases in veterinary fees.   Pet health insurance may help to reduce your financial worries about caring for your pet.

Our surgery is authorised by the FSA to discuss and recommend Petplan Insurance policies.

We have chosen Petplan because they offer:

• Lifelong policies that cover conditions indefinitely - some other company policies only cover a condition for 12 months

• Efficient processing - we will soon be able to submit claims electronically from our veterinary system

• Dedicated Vetline to discuss your claim

• Simple policy excesses making your costs clear

What to look for in a policy

It is important that you read through the insurance documents carefully to make sure that you select a policy that is best suited to you and your pet.

• Some policies have a time limit (commonly 12 months) or cost limit for the treatment of each individual condition.   You need to be aware that your pet could run out of cover if it requires long-term treatment for a chronic or recurring problem such as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease or skin allergies

• You may want to consider the amount of time and effort that will be needed to make a claim.   Some companies will process a claim within 4 working days of receiving the completed documents from your vet, whilst others that we work with take 4 months!!

What costs are covered by insurance?

This varies according to the specific policy, but typically is will pay for the costs of veterinary treatment for illness and accident, as well as for third party liability or accidental damage caused by your pet.
Diseases that were already present at the time the insurance was taken out will usually not be covered, nor are vaccinations, neutering costs and other routine preventative treatments.

What is a policy excess?

This is the amount that you need to pay towards the cost of treating each illness or injury during the period of cover (the policy year). Some policies will deduct a one-off excess per condition (regardless of the number of claim forms submitted for that condition), whilst others will deduct a percentage of each claim form submitted. The policy excess will need to be paid directly to your veterinary surgery.