The benefits of pet insurance and wellness plans

Originally published in OVMA Focus Magazine March/April 2024

BY NANCY POPPE

Many pet owners express confusion on the topic of pet health insurance and veterinary wellness plans. There are clear benefits for both pet owners and veterinary practices when pets have insurance and a wellness plan. As such, it’s worthwhile to provide clients with good information to make informed decisions.

Wellness plans

A wellness plan provides planned annual veterinary care costs bundled as a package that can be paid in monthly installments. For pet owners, when considering the cost of paying veterinary bills all at once or spreading the cost over monthly payments, there’s a financial bud- get benefit to having a wellness plan. For veterinary practices, the benefits of wellness plans include client retention and compliance regarding veterinary recommendations. A wellness plan takes time to set up and administer, but the benefits are significant enough to warrant the effort.

A wellness plan should incorporate all preventive veterinary recommendations for a one-year period and divide that cost into monthly payments. When setting up your plan, consider the preventive care needed to maintain optimal health. From there, you may consider add-on options for senior pets, dental procedures and specialized plans for puppies and kittens, which have higher costs the first year (e.g. spay/neuter) that can be daunting to pet owners.

In addition to its development, consider how the plan will be implemented within your practice management software and how payments will be collected. Educate all team members on your wellness plan, so they can educate clients on what a wellness plan is, what it covers and how it works. Use printed materials such as brochures to help further explain your wellness plan to clients.

Pet insurance

Pet insurance is very different than a wellness plan and provides compensation for unexpected veterinary costs. Treatment of injured and ill pets is costly, and when it’s a surprise, it can force owners into a financially difficult decision at an emotional time. Pet owners with pet insurance can receive lifesaving treatments that they may not be able to otherwise afford for their pet. Promoting pet insurance is a win-win: clients will be better prepared for unexpected veterinary costs and veterinarians will see more compliance of treatment recommendations when cost is no longer the driving factor for clients’ decisions.

Pet health insurance and wellness plans differ in patient care needs: one is for unexpected veterinary costs, the other for expected costs. However, they are the same in that they both enable clients to provide the best care for their pets. Veterinary practices offering wellness plans and promoting pet insurance provide clients with valuable options.

Nancy Poppe, CVPM, CPB, is a practice advisor at VetCPA.

Reprinted from the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association’s Focus magazine www.ovma.org