My 2023 Review of PetsBest Pet Insurance + a few tips (LongPost)
Pet insurance will only reimburse payments that you have already made and this can take months. You will need to have a good savings account and/or credit limit to cover the costs up front. Itās rare to find a vet who will do a payment plan and it can be really stressful to have your ability to cover a large transaction during nonbusiness hours be the only thing stopping you from saving your pets life. So #1 apply for CareCredit ahead of time and if possible have a savings account and good credit limit for emergencies. Usually if the transaction is larger than $200 you can get a 6 months no-interest period with CareCredit. The limit is often determined by your credit score & income but the more you use it and pay it off the higher they will raise your CareCredit limit over time. As far as the amount is concerned Iāve seen people with CareCredit as low as $500 and as high as $10,000. Our starting offer was $2500 and was bumped up to $6000 after using it for over a year.
There are two main ways deductibles can work in pet insurance. Some companies have one deductible per annual period that you need to pay before receiving benefits. Others will have a deductible per incident and then anything related to that illness/injury in the future your deductible will have been paid already no matter the time period (which might not be good for accident prone dogs but is great for chronic illnesses) PetsBest does an annual limit that is customizable so itās hard to give exact estimates but here is what it looks like for us: We pay $32/mo for Mandanas insurance for a 90% reimbursement level and supposedly unlimited annual limit. That $32 also includes the supplementary package for chiropractic/acupuncture/rehab (more on that later). We chose a $250 annual deductible that we have to meet by filing approved claims. So for every claim they first subtract what isnāt covered > then subtract the 10% ācopayā >> then take that amount and subtract it from the $250 deductible >>> if the annual deductible is met then whatās left (90% of the approved expenses) is payed out in a check or via direct deposit. (It took us a little over a week to get our check).
Preexisting conditions is another thing that can vary in pet insurance. Thereās no right or wrong when it comes to this. PetsBest doesnāt cover preexisting conditions but if your pet develops chronic issues they will continue to cover those expenses longterm as long as you donāt cancel your plan and start it over (as mentioned above you will still have to meet the deductible every year even if itās the same issue). We recently got a large check for Mandanas elbow mass removal and the emergency visit that was related to that surgery. I asked how this would affect our future rates and PetsBest assured me they donāt change rates based on claims and payouts. (They have a super secret formula for how they change their annual rates which I think involves the pets age and other mystery variables. I guess weāll see later this year if they raise our rates drastically after paying out)
They are in the business of making money and will use the fine print against you whenever possible. This goes for every claim you make but here is our specific example. As mentioned before, we chose to add on the chiro/acupuncture/rehab package and that has been our biggest disappointment (and as far as I know you canāt remove it from your plan without canceling and reapplying which is a big No No because every claim would now be considered preexisting!) For starters they will only cover these things if prescribed and performed by a licensed vet, so you are limited in that capacity even if the chiropractor works with your vet and comes highly recommended. The second issue is that they will only cover their definition of these therapies and that might not be what is used by your vet. My vet doesnāt do acupuncture in the strictest sense bc trying to convince a dog to stand still for 20 minutes with needles in their back is often more trouble than itās worth. Like many vets nowadays, she uses aquapuncture which is saline/b vitamin injections into acupuncture points. It take about a minute to do all the injections and it has been one of the most effective treatments for Mandanas back issue. PetsBest doesnāt care what is best for the pet. They say they will only cover acupuncture or electro acupuncture (not acupoint, acupressure or aquapuncture). So if you are interested in various types of therapies be sure to read the fine print and not just what they will cover but specifically what they wonāt cover because those are located in two different places in your policy. (Another note on this point that Iāve seen others experience is that they will try to claim everything they can is a side effect of the preexisting conditions. So if your dog has allergies as preexisting then they may try to say any skin issues, ear infections, diarrhea, UTIs ect from here on out are caused by the allergies and it doesnāt matter if thatās true or not. I havenāt personally experienced this yet but it does happen with every pet insurance company Iāve heard of so just be aware of that.)
Filing a claim is both easy & troublesome. All I have to do to file a claim is take a picture of the vet receipt and proof of payment (which would be the CareCredit receipt if thatās what was used). That picture is taken through the PetsBest app. I put the date the problem first started and a little description and then hit submit. In 35 days you should receive an email with a breakdown or what was covered and what wasnāt with a description next to each of why that decision was made. Recently they said itās taking 42 days for claims to be processed, so thatās a decent chunk of time you have to manage a big transaction until you get reimbursed. If you file one claim and have other vet expenses come up before that claim has been processed go ahead and file those too. They will go over all of them in one session at the end of your waiting period and that will save you time in the long run.
The reason I say itās also troublesome is because they have automated messages that talk about how your claim is delayed because of incomplete medical history due to lack of communication from your vet. I have a close relationship with my vet and that is absolutely false. When those emails are sent out I have been at my vets office and they havenāt even received the requests from PetsBest yet. Upon my request the staff will send the information via email to PetsBest and PetsBest will continue to say they havenāt received anything and that it canāt be processed. I have time-stamped emails from my vets office that proves otherwise and Iāve talked to PetsBest customer service who say they have the documents they need and to just ignore the email. As someone who struggles with healthcare related PTSD, this is really unacceptable. Vets and their staff are already taxed beyond belief due to the massive ratio of vets/pets in this country. To send out automated messages that discredit vet staff and encourage pet owners to put pressure on them is crazy. It quickly ruins the pet owner-vet relationship and for what? To make things slightly more convenient for the paid employees of PetsBest? So just know going into these claims, that they may actually need that paperwork but itās better for you and your vet to call PetsBest as often as needed to confirm what they have on your account before turning that energy towards your vets office. (Also, when you call PetsBest you need to have your claim number available to type in even if you arenāt calling about a specific claim or it will be difficult to talk to a real person and you may get stuck in the automated call process or have your call dropped)
I know this is a long post, so I think Iāll wrap it up here. If youāve made it this far then I hope youāve found some of this information helpful. I donāt claim to be an expert on pet insurance. This is just my experience from having & using it over the course of the last year with a sick dog. Iām sure I will post more about it in the future when Iām able to offer more insights as to whether or not itās worth it and if this is a good company to useāļø
