Petplan Vs Healthy Paws

[Guest SoleSky]

Hello all,

 

I just adopted my new girl Suki. She is a 2 1/2 year old black female. So far she seems to be in good health and our first vet appointment is next week. I am a veterinary student living in Kentucky and with PetPlan I get a 20% discount for being in the veterinary field. However, I was wondering if anyone had experience with the two and which one would be the better option?

 

I know HealthyPaws has an annual deductible - does PetPlan have that too? Or it is per incident that you need to pay the deductible? As far as receiving the refund check, what experience have you had with either of them?

I have heard that if there is a pre-existing condition, such as a UTI, they try and link the pre-existing condition with other conditions to avoid payment. Have you had this experience?

 

I would appreciate any advice!

 

Thank you.

[Feisty49]

I don't know anything about PetPlan. Sorry. I've used Healthy Paws for 3 years and except for minor, and unusual, delays in payment this past summer, I have no complaints. I don't know why acknowledgement and reimbursement were delayed, but once summer was over, they went back to normal, with normal being acknowledgement of a claim within 24 hours and payment received within 7-10 days.

 

Claims to Healthy Paws can be submitted via an app on a smart phone. It's easy peasy. Once the account is established, take a picture of the invoice and hit "submit."

 

Healthy Paws representatives are always available, and if for some reason everybody is busy, someone takes your number and calls back within an hour or two.

 

The company has choices for deductibles and percentage of repayment. I currently have a $250 annual deductible (*not* per incident) with a 90% reimbursement rate. The monthly premiums is $42 and change, which I considerable OK for my 8-year-old Annie.

 

They don't cover previous/existing conditions, but I've never heard they try to get out of payment by linking something new to something old. It just doesn't sound like something this company would do. Annie had no previous conditions so I have no experience with this.

 

A 20% discount sounds pretty good, I suppose, though honestly, if your monthly premium is, for example, $40, you'd be saving only $8 a month, which I don't consider much. If all other services are the same with other companies you are considering, then I'd go for it, but if another company is much better, I'd skip a discount.

[Guest k9soul]

I've only had experience with Healthy Paws and don't have much to add to Feisty49's post except to confirm that the deductible is annual (not per incident) and they do have some different pricing packages. I've just submitted one small claim and they processed it easily and quickly online.

[Victor]

We've had nothing but positive experiences with HealthyPaws. When our angel Lana developed osteosarcoma, we discovered just how important it is to have health insurance. Although it was too late for her, we signed up for HealthyPaws for our boy, Duke. Several months later he passed due to a blood clot, and HealthyPaws promptly paid the claim, no questions asked. This despite the fact that Duke had only been insured for a short period of time and the claim was rather large (Duke had been hospitalized for several days). We didn't even consider other insurers when we adopted our two current greys, Joy and Gilgun.

 

Victor

[NeedlenoseJake]

We have Healthy Paws and, luckily, haven't needed to use it much. I was a little disappointment when I discovered that their deductible only includes what is allowed AFTER taking off your portion. For instance, we just had a $260 bill. $95 was office visit and not covered. So I thought the $165 remaining would go to the deductible. We have 70% coverage, and so only about $115 went to the deductible.

[seeh2o]

I have Healthy Paws, too. I love them. Last year they paid for Doodles $3,000+ 8 day hospitalization under the supervision of a neurologist. No questions asked, the check, minus the deductible, arrived and paid for 90% just like they said they would.

[Guest SoleSky]

This is great! I think I will go with healthy paws then! I don't care about the discount as much as I care about her safety and the honesty of the company. I will be taking her to the vet next week so I'm getting on that ASAP. Thanks so much. This forum has been invaluable.

[Walliered]

I am using Healthy Paws for my Galgo and Trupanion for my Greyhounds. The Healthy Paws premium is about 1/2 of the Trupanion. Both companies pay rather quickly. I have only used Healthy Paws once with no problems. Trupanion has REALLY paid off over the years with the Greyhounds. Lady has had back surgery three times. She has had disk replacement. DaVid has had back surgery two times. They both have corns that have to be hulled weekly. They both are on Gab and Tram several times a day…the list goes on and on. So, either insurance company would be good, but Healthy Paws is cheaper.

[PrairieProf]

I had PetPlan. It has a per-incident deductible. You set the level. I thought it was fine but have switched to HP for my new dog after hearing the praise here.

[Guest SoleSky]

Does Healthy Paws take into account the different bloodwork that greyhounds have? Such as TSH/T4 levels and different hematocrit?

[PrairieProf]

They aren't diagnosing anything or reading labs.....

[Guest SoleSky]

Okay, so it is based on the veterinarian's diagnosis?

[Walliered]

The bill is sent from the Vet to the insurance company. Insurance company pays bill depending on your deductible.

[seeh2o]

They do review the visit information, but they've never had any issues with Carl or Doodles bloodwork. I get the visit report and paid invoice at the end of the visit and submit it myself using the Health Paws app, I would never wait for the vet's office to prepare it for me. I don't think the vet's office would want to submit it either.

 

They cover alternative treatments, too. They've been covering Doodles cold laser treatments (once every 3 weeks since last year) and acupuncture. Sadly, they don't cover dental. Very few insurances cover dental.

 

Healthy Paws deductible is per year, mercifully not per incident. And, once diagnosed, they don't exclude a health issue as "pre-existing" when the police rolls over the next year. Pet First did that, really pissed me off, I switched to Trupanion after that, then Trupanion raised their monthly rate by something ridiculous, like 33%, for my two who had never even had so much as one claim. That's when I switched to Healthy Paws, never looked back!

[Walliered]

I know what you mean about Trupanion's rates. It costs me close to $200.00 per month for my 2 hounds, but I cannot change companies because of their pre-existing conditions and their ages (10-11). But, my vet handles all of the paperwork for me. I don't have to do a thing.