Vet charge

One of our local vets was taken over by an American chain. Prices up, service has suffered…
It’s already happening in the NHS and I fear for it.

£30.00 admit charge with our vets!!! If you pay infull and they then make the claim there's no charge.
Been with them since 1986 and they still won't wave the charge . £1350.00 yesterday for spaying and removing a cancerous lump on one of ours . Non of the local vets offers after hours emergency work anymore- we had to use an emergency vets and that was £350.00 just for the consultation!!!

Maybe they're inundated by time wasters who know there's nothing really wrong with their pet.

Our vet has an admin charge for every new insurance claim they process. It's about ten or twelve quid. Ongoing claims aren't subject to the charge. So maybe worth double checking that?

Petplan don't pay our vets to process the claims, so it seems reasonable to me to charge an admin fee to set the claim up and send the medical details to the insurer. Esp when we're claiming every few months for regular meds on an ongoing claim and have been doing that on the same claim for years.

If we had new claims regularly, I can see how it would add up though.

Direct claim fees are fairly standard. Dealing direct with the company is good for the client but can involve quite a bit of chasing and delays in getting paid - not so much with Pet Plan who are quite efficient but definitely with some other companies.
Insurance claims take a lot of time to work through, and I don’t think there are many other businesses that spend significant amounts of time dealing with things on behalf of their clients and charge nothing for it, which most vets still do for insurance claims that are not direct with the insurance company.
Try seeing how far £10 gets you at a solicitors.

Think yourself lucky. My local veterinary practice doesn't actually have any vets.

Try seeing how far £10 gets you at a solicitors.

You mean after the first free initial consultation offered by many solicitors?

You'd think vets would charge more against the insurance company under the claim, rather than requiring the customer to pay a fee. And then billing more to the insurer anyway; which is what seems to get discussed on here when folks ask about whether pet insurance is worth it.

My local veterinary practice doesn’t actually have any vets.

That was the same problem with a veterinary practice that I use. It lasted a few months but I think it is sorted now - luckily two young and very healthy cats means that vet visits are restricted to just the annual vaccination visits.

Maybe they’re inundated by time wasters who know there’s nothing really wrong with their pet.

If that's aimed at me you're way off the mark.
All bar one of the vets in our local area are now owned by national groups, the moment ours was sold the whole practice changed- it lost a lot of its personal approach and some of the longer serving vets left.

Charging anything but your normal fees to insured animals is fraud. If you’re going to charge an admin fee you can’t bill it to the insurance company.

Can’t deny that corporates have changed things though, and largely not for the better.

Plus yes there are no vets anywhere, everyone is trying to recruit and largely failing miserably.

Costs have gone up like everything else, vets aren't exempt, and they have to pay staff  like everyone else. Why should they have to deal with your insurance claim? £10 sounds like a bargain to me for the amount of admin.

My vet has never claimed direct with Pet Plan. Or at least they didn't years ago when we had pet insurance.

The hassle of filling out claim forms was the main reason we stopped using pet insurance. 9 years on with a cat and two dogs we are well ahead of what we would have paid in premiums. But that is another argument.

I think the fees are reasonable. We have been with the same vet for 35 years. He works hard to keep cost down. For example our cat needed a heart scan. Rather than refer us to the vet school with a huge bill he told us it didn't need done immediately. If we waited a few weeks there was a guy who comes to the surgery with a mobile scanner unit and does a batch of scans. The cost was very reasonable.

When I had a dog my vet used to charge £10 for dealing with insurance claims directly. Given how effing usless PetPlan are and the inane and stupid questions they ask the vets I think thats a fair charge for the amount of work they have to do to claim!

cat needed a heart scan

Sorry, but that tickled me!

I did wonder what a CAT scan was.

Your vet sounds like a good one. Heard many horror stories re vets. Yours sounds fine !

£10 sounds like a bargain to me for the amount of admin.

There's not much at the vet end if the client has completed the forms properly as they prepare an invoice that's printable at every consultation at our vet. Bought by Many don't appear to be too onerous and don't bother the vet if one has the invoice in with the claim.

“When I had a dog my vet used to charge £10 for dealing with insurance claims directly. Given how effing usless PetPlan are and the inane and stupid questions they ask the vets I think thats a fair charge for the amount of work they have to do to claim!”

As an equine vet this comment hits the nail on the head. The insurance companies are becoming a complete nightmare to deal with.
Gone are the days of ‘do job, write notes, complete claim form, post’.
Now every form submitted generates a sometimes endless loop of emailed queries and absurd misinterpretation of the clinical records.
The time taken, normally at home, in the evenings, to reply to these try and stop claims being wriggled out of is a job which warrants a considerable amount more than £10.
We charge £15 for a new claim, for the time and irritation it’s takes per claim I’d be happier charging £50!

As per above the amount of letters phone calls and emails I’ve made to insurance companies to persuade them to pay for perfectly valid claims would justify a much higher claims management fee than the zero we charge for standard claims and £20 or so for direct claims, which by the way is only for the first claim, with no repeat charge for continuation claims.

The last dog was insured with someone other than PetPlan we had no end of fun sorting out the medication claims as we bought the drugs online with a prescription paid for at the vets. Prescription fee paid with no quibble but every other month I had to explain to another trainee that the claim was for expenditure on the prescription that they had sight of (submitted with the latest vet bill) that was incurred without recourse to the vet. We were around £300 out of pocket when we had him put down as neither of us could be arsed dealing with them any more.

One of our local vets was taken over by an American chain. Prices up, service has suffered…

There has been and is ongoing, massive consolidation in the pet industry with individual private practices and small groups being swallowed up by large chains. However, the 1980s model of veterinary practice with individual vets working all hours for not much money wasn't sustainable and the price rises etc are just catching up with modern day living costs etc. You have a lot more female veterinarians now as they can achieve a better work life balance as a franchisee as the higher charges afford them to be able to employ enough staff to not have to work 24/7.

Can't pass judgement on that charge, but a friend of mine's vet (in a well-off area) charges new clients a monthly subscription fee just to be on the books.

**** that shit.

We pay a monthly subscription fee, but we get the annual check up and all flea / worm treatment in return. Could probably buy it cheaper online, but I'm happy to support our local Vet, who is excellent (Vets4Pets Franchise).

£1350.00 yesterday for spaying and removing a cancerous lump on one of ours . Non of the local vets offers after hours emergency work anymore- we had to use an emergency vets and that was £350.00 just for the consultation!!!

Why didn't you wait until the next morning, or am I missing something?

Why didn’t you wait until the next morning, or am I missing something?

Sometimes it can't wait - we've had to use one twice for our mutt, bit times an inflamed anal gland had burst and he was dripping blood, puss and anal gland goo out of his bumhole (you've finished your breakfast, right?). First time was a Saturday afternoon, so the vets would be shut until the Monday, second time was New Year's Day.

If you live in easy reach of Norbury South London these vets are remarkably cheap, eg £150 for a lifetime of annual cat vaccinations. Although when mine were kittens about 4 years ago it was on special offer and was only £85 each for a lifetime of annual vaccinations. I honestly don't know how they managed to do that deal.

https://www.easipetcare.com/prices-and-procedures

Edit: I have just realised that they also have veterinary practices in Chatham, Dartford, Derby, Kettering, and Reading.

I honestly don’t know how they managed to do that deal.

I assume someone has done the maths and they make the money back from future treatments. It's just a loss leader to get you on their books....

Our deal was £10/month for vaccinations, flea and worm treatment and annual visits, although it's now going up to £15 / month per cat.

You mean after the first free initial consultation offered by many solicitors?

but that isn't really free!  That's a screening meeting so the solicitor can work out if you have a decent case / enough money to pay them / are an idiot / etc.  If they take that case on they've factored in the cost as overhead in the subsequent hourly rate!  If they don't take the case on (or put you off using them) it is likely they didn't want you or your case.  E.g. if you walk in with a simple request to send a standard snotty letter which they have a template for - putting the details in and printing it out is <30 mins, but you won't get that for free!

I don't know why you'd expect your Vet, or their admin staff to work for free either.  Keep in mind that even if its the most junior member of staff who does the work then:  The Min Wage from April will be £10.42.  On top of which the employer has to pay NI and Pension.  So basically £12.33 per hour is the direct cost of employing someone.  The junior member of staff is entitled to paid holidays, sick pay etc.  The junior member of staff will be supervised by others. They have a building with heating, rent, rates etc. A phone line for the insurance company to call them on.  Computers to process the work.  You probably pay by card so the vet has transaction costs. (50p?) and then they have VAT to pay.  I'd say £10 = <15 minutes work for admin staff if they want to make profit.   Its almost impossible to have someone walk through the door, deal with their admin request, print off/sign whatever is needed and take their payment in <10 minutes unless its the only thing you do and you want to make people queue up to do it so you never get down time.

You probably pay by card so the vet has transaction costs. (50p?)

If only. The banks moved to a percentage charge shortly after lockdown from 1.5% for debit cards and 3% or more for a lot of credit cards.

If only. The banks moved to a percentage charge shortly after lockdown from 1.5% for debit cards and 3% or more for a lot of credit cards.

Doesn't that vary according to size? I assumed small shops paid for more the smaller number of transactions and weaker purchasing power.

E.g. Amazon was going to stop using Visa (or MC), obviously angling for a better deal.

Yeah, we've moved a fair bit, so we've been at several vets over the last few years and they've all charged us an admin fee for making insurance claims on our behalf.

So now we do it ourselves and it's apparently simple in the Pet Plan web portal thing.

I would say you've been lucky to get away with it for as long as you have, and it's probably only cos of some rather clonky back-office admin systems, rather than any sudden maliciousness on their part.

Vets - overworked, stressed, understaffed and underpaid (which comes as a surprise to some people who seem to think they're paid like dentists).

Think yourself lucky. My local veterinary practice doesn’t actually have any vets.

Interesting. Expand?

If only. The banks moved to a percentage charge shortly after lockdown from 1.5% for debit cards and 3% or more for a lot of credit cards.

So on a £10 charge is 15-30p.  I assumed there was either a monthly machine rental or a per transaction charge too.  In my experience a £10 fee is probably costing 50p.  If its costing you more than that probably ditch the main terminals and look at Sumup etc.  Even cash has a transaction cost though - someone had to count it, take it to the bank, the bank often charges for handling etc.

Interesting. Expand?

I know that wasn't aimed at me but one of my local vets didn't have any vets for a period of time, only appointments with a veterinary nurse.

This was the content of an email that I received on 6/9/21

We are writing to inform you of our difficult decision to further reduce our weekday hours, as well as the services we are able to offer. This is due to the ongoing staffing shortages we are facing currently throughout the veterinary industry.

Our temporary opening hours will be as follows:

Mon-Fri: 8am to 4.30pm

Saturdays: Temporarily closed

The good news is that we are still able to open but we will only be able to provide the following non-urgent services:

VACCINATIONS

NURSE CONSULTS

PRESCRIPTION ORDERS & COLLECTIONS

NAIL CLIPS

So no urgent treatment with a vet was available but the "good news" was that they were open for non-urgent appointments with a nurse!

Ah yes. I know recruitment is an issue.

Previously, we had many, many vets coming from EU member states.

But for some reason practitioners from that talent pool seem now to be going elsewhere.

Well thankfully they have somehow managed to overcome that problem, it wasn't for long.

Charging anything but your normal fees to insured animals is fraud. If you’re going to charge an admin fee you can’t bill it to the insurance company.

Technically true, but in reality I've known them to bill the insured owners for everything (and it's all on an agreed price list with the insurer, nothing untoward), the uninsured ones they conveniently forget the high margin items and just included what it cost to keep Rover healthy.