When visiting the VPI Pet Insurance website you’ll find that they have placed an “easy claims process” box in the lower left corner of the site. This text states that it is a simple three step process where you will have to:
1. Visit any veterinarian
2. Submit the claim
3. Receive the reimbursement
After just looking at these three steps I have to agree that the process seems really simple and I get the feeling that this ought to be a walk in the park.
Is VPI Pet Insurance Claims Really That Simple?
But from several negative testimonials that we’ve received from people following this blog I felt that I had to dig a little deeper to see what might lie underneath this easy process. VPI pet insurance provides a link that says “learn more” so naturally I clicked that link.
The next page looks nice and starts with a statement that says that “VPI has helped protect more than one million pets since 1982”. So there is still nothing that makes me feel uneasy with the claim process at VPI.
The first thing you do is to take your sick or hurt pet to the veterinarian for treatment. Depending on the treatment required this can be a more or less costly affair. At this point you still don’t know whether VPI is going to cover your expenses or not. You’ll have to pay for whatever treatment is required and then get the money reimbursed at a later stage. If surgery and medication is required you can see yourself paying thousands of dollars without knowing whether you’ll ever get them reimbursed.
Pet Insurance Reimbursement
After you get the bill from the VET you’ll download the claim form from VPI’s website, fill it out and send it along with your VET bill to the insurance company. After they have received your claim you should get a confirmation that your request is received and is being processed. One would assume that this response should be with you in a matter of days.
The final step is the reimbursement where VPI states on their site that: “After meeting your policy’s deductible, you are reimbursed according to your plan’s benefit schedule allowance or the invoice amount, whichever is less”.
On their website you’ll also find some examples of how a VPI pet insurance premium packages has saved different pet owners from large medical bills.
Now all of this sounds just fine but what is missing is that VPI (like any other pet insurance company) will not accept every claim made and you can therefore be in a situation where you have paid several hundred or thousands of dollars for pet treatment and you’ll get nothing reimbursed.
I have no statistics that will tell you how many claims are rejected every year but I bet it is quite a lot. So my advice is that you should talk to your VET about whether she thinks that you’ll be able to get the treatment costs reimbursed BEFORE you have them treat your pet. I know that it might sound harsh but if you can afford the treatment without getting the reimbursement what other options do you have?
Just for the record there is no different between VPI and any other pet insurance company. All companies will reject a smaller or larger amount of claims per year and the VPI pet insurance program is no different.