Pet Insurance Dept

Our dedicated insurance department is there to help your insurance claims go through as quickly and smoothly as possible.

The main benefit of pet insurance is the reassurance that should your pet become ill, or have an accident, they can have all the treatment they require, without compromise, and without you having to worry about the cost of treatment.

As most insurance companies expect you to pay first (then they refund you) the quicker your claim goes through the better for you.

The insurance team takes on as much of the administration for you as they are legally allowed to by the FSA. This includes liaising with all the relevant parties, ensuring that forms are filled in correctly and therefore avoiding delays.

The Claim Process

• In order to start to process your claim, we need a signed insurance form with all the relevant sections completed by yourself.
• We endeavour to process your claim within 5 days of receiving your claim form.
• Once we have received your signed form, our insurance team print out all of your pet's recent treatment notes.
• These are then given to one of our veterinary surgeons to read and check, and to complete their part of the claim form.
• The cost of treatment relevant to this claim is then calculated and copies of the clinical notes are faxed to the insurance company.
• Details of the claim and any communications are added to our computer records for future reference, by our insurance department.
• Your claim is then posted to your insurance company. Unfortunately, due to legal restrictions, we are unable to send forms directly to many companies. If this is the case, the form will be returned to you ready for you to post.

Payment of the claim

Insurance companies do vary considerably in the time it takes them to make a payment. With some there can be up to a 3 month delay.

All policies are different, in your insurance documents you will find details of the excess amount payable by you and any conditions excluded from your policy.

We will notify you of any payments you need to make including the excess, administration fee and anything not covered by your policy.

We are here to help

During the course of the claim process, our insurance department will be happy to help with any queries you or your insurance company may have.

If necessary, they will look into and chase any outstanding claims.

Some insurance companies can be quite difficult in settling a claim and, in such cases, our team will give you as much assistance as they can.

Due to legal stipulations, some insurance companies will only allow the policy holder to communicate directly with them, in which case our team will give you all the information and advice we can.

Meanwhile, if you have any queries with any insurance matters, please telephone our insurance department on 01275 838 465.

Based at our Stockwood branch, opening times are MONDAY TO FRIDAY 9.30 am to 5 pm.

Administration Fee

As you can see, the claim process is very time consuming for our veterinary surgeons and administrative team, and we therefore charge a small fee of £14.45 (inc. VAT) towards our costs.

PLEASE NOTE

As you are aware Pet Insurance is there to cover your animal for unexpected illness or injury.

With the appropriate policy, the pet insurance company will cover the costs of veterinary treatment.

The policy chosen by you is an agreement between the policy holder (named person on the policy) and the chosen insurance company. The practice has no part in this contract. We only provide the necessary veterinary treatment and care.

The practice is unable to advise you whether your insurance company will cover your pet for treatment. Unfortunately not all policies are the same and vary greatly with the cover they provide, there maybe exclusions set on the policy that we as a practice are unaware of.

The practice will provide all the necessary assistance to all our insured clients and their insurance companies providing relevant clinical history and completed forms.

IF THE INSURANCE COMPANY DECLINES THE CLAIM FOR WHATEVER REASON, THE ACCOUNT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CLIENT. The practice will accept no responsibility for this.

If you have any queries about your insurance policy and the cover it provides, we suggest you speak to your insurance company who should assist you further.