Vip Pet Insurance

[brandimom]

Anyone having problems getting their gh covered under this ins. plan? One of my adopters is having issues with VIP. Our gh's come off the Caliente Mexico track and their is no medical history until they come into rescue and we do the usual - altering them, dental check and vaccinations. Any advice? Thanks.

[KF_in_Georgia]

My Silver was picked up as a stray, so I had no records for her. VPI wanted her records, and they insisted on knowing what doctors she'd seen. She'd been seen by animal control's vet, SEGA's vet, and my own vet. She had several health issues (a corn, a gimpy back leg, and a skin infection), and VPI had a long list of things they wouldn't cover (including potential osteo in her gimpy leg, although the problem with the leg is a tendon, not a bone). They said we could come back a year later with records, and they'd reconsider her policy.

 

And then I got VPI's payment for another dog's final illness, and VPI paid less than 25 cents on the dollar on those expenses. (I spent about $4500; VPI paid about $1100.) At that point, considering that they weren't going to cover much of anything on a policy for Silver, I stopped dealing with them.

 

Advise your adopter: VPI pays 90% of their allowable charges. This is nothing like 90% of the adopter's expenses. VPI seemed to think you could treat an immune system disorder for about $300; in fact, you can't accurately diagnose an immune system disorder for that amount.

 

Silver is 8 years old and is not insured, which worries me. But she's been expensive in the two years I've had her, and I think any insurance company would find almost any ailment she develops to be a pre-existing condition. I won't adopt another dog until I can afford to insure that dog, and I will not ever insure with VPI again. If your adopter wants to pursue a policy with VPI, he might refer VPI to your group's vet and get a limited policy (perhaps one that covers accidents/injuries, but not diseases) from VPI for one year, then submit a year's worth of vet records and try to get them to review their policy.

 

ETA: VPI had insured three greyhounds (two in 2003, one in 2006) of mine without asking for medical records on any of them. Silver was the first dog I tried to insure that they asked for records on (that was in 2011). Their insistence on medical records appears to be a recent thing.

Edited August 27, 2013 by KF_in_Georgia

[jaym1]

HEALTHY PAWS

 

90% of vet charges, less examination fee. no quibbling on costs

 

annual cumulative deductible, rather than per-incident deductible

 

no lifetime or annual caps

 

adoption medical records or track records are good enough

 

can request a full review for preexisting disqualifications during the first month of policy, and can opt out with a refund if any issues are found

 

in the event of an emergency that comes with prohibitive up-front costs, and where care will not be given without upfront payment, healthy paws will call the medical provider and PAY THE DEPOSIT WITH THEIR OWN CREDIT CARD

 

electronic submission of claims, super fast turnaround on payments

 

monthly premium for a 2 or 3 year old dog will be around $30-$35

 

there is no better pet insurance company.

[winnie]

VPI is awful... stay far, far away.

[MP_the4pack]

RUN!

 

I had VPI for 13 yrs. I dropped them for Tanzi and Emma (Opal is 9 and will have too many exclusions if I switch now, so she's stuck staying)

 

Go to Healthy Paws, Embrace or Trupanion. (I went Healthy Paws)

[claudiav]

BEST FRIENDS Pet Insurance. Love them. they don't make you jump thru hoops. and it benefits Best Friends Animal Sanctuary out in Utah (animal heaven on earth)

[Remolacha]

Avoid VPI. They refused to cover my 2 yr old grey because he had IBD. I didn't expect them to cover the IBD (pre-existing condition), but they refused all coverage. They actually did me a favor, because that caused me to take another look at the premiums on my other pets, which had jumped by 1/4-1/3 as they got older, so I dropped them.

[inugrey]

All you have to do is explain the dog is a rescue with no medical history. We got our greys covered very easily when they were first brought home. We could not however add our dog that we adopted when she was eight. VPI isn't the best but it isn't the worst either. There are insurance comparison websites, encourage them to shop around.

[brandimom]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Very helpful!

[CharlieRhea]

I was going to ask which health insurance plan most people here like. I had researched and liked Healthy Paws, seems to be the consensus here also. Thank you Greytalk people!

[Sambuca]

I use Embrace. It's ok.

[vjgrey]

I've been thrilled with Healthy Paws. We've had no issues with thousands of dollars (approaching ten thousand now) of Osteo-related claims

[NeylasMom]

Ditto on Healthy Paws. I didn't realize they required you to submit claims in a certain timeframe so I delayed in sending Violets rhabdo bills. Thousands if dollars, they just reimbursed me and included a note saying that next time I needed to follow the timeline. They could have given me a hard time or refused to reimburse me, really impressed that they didn't.

[philospher77]

Ditto on Healthy Paws. I didn't realize they required you to submit claims in a certain timeframe so I delayed in sending Violets rhabdo bills. Thousands if dollars, they just reimbursed me and included a note saying that next time I needed to follow the timeline. They could have given me a hard time or refused to reimburse me, really impressed that they didn't.

 

I wasn't aware of a timeline, probably because I try and do the claim the next day to limit the time I am out the money. Can you tell us what it is, just for future reference?

 

The downside to HP is that they don't cover routine dentals, on which I just spent 1k. But they have been awesome on covering what they do. And I can't fault the turn-around times... send them an e-mail with a claim, they generally get back to me the same day with the "this is what we will cover" part and then it's just waiting for the check to come. On Pixie's drug refills for an on-going medical condition, I've gotten the response email within 5 minutes of sending the claim!

[kudzu]

philospher77, 1k doesn't sound like a routine dental. Sounds like something out of the ordinary happened. HP said they wouldn't cover any of it?

[Guest DeniseL]

Trupanion has been fantastic for us.

[philospher77]

philospher77, 1k doesn't sound like a routine dental. Sounds like something out of the ordinary happened. HP said they wouldn't cover any of it?

 

HP doesn't cover dental care unless it's a result of accident or illness. And Katie has awful teeth, even for a greyhound. This last time was not "normal", because of the number of teeth that got pulled and which ones: 2 carnassials (which are the really big ones that look like mountains and take a lot of time to pull since they need to be cut in half first), two molars, and two premolars. So I was expecting the bill, but still wish that HP would cover it. They don't, because it's routine care and if they did they would have to raise their rates. So it's a tradeoff.