Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Evangelism at its best

What can I say but go check out this review of the Embrace Pet Insurance claims process by Mo over at Invisible Voices. Mo previously wrote an excellent guide to pet insurance claims and has written quite a bit on her experiences with pet insurance on that blog.

Mo recounts her expectations and experience from the 4 claims she recently had with Embrace. One of my favorite parts is (blush):

I think we just may have our first pet insurance that does what it promises, and does it with actual customer service that is knowledgeable, helpful, professional, and pleasant. I would not hesitate to buy a policy from them again (with the exception of a pre-existing condition that other current insurance covers which Embrace would not), and I would recommend them to anyone looking to buy pet insurance.

We still have some areas where we can improve such as better communication about waiting for the vet records and no more interrupting on the phone (oops!) but in the end, it's a pretty sad indictment of pet insurance in general if a policyholder finds that doing what we said we'd would do is amazing.

What has your experience with pet insurance been in the past? Don't be shy now.

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If you have a cat...

Ask Laura: when to get continuing care?

Here's a question that was posted for me over at the Invisible Voices discussion about pet insurance.

Question:

Let’s say in the year 1 I don’t get “continuing care” coverage and my cat gets sick. Embrace covers the vet bills. In the year two when I’m renewing my policy, do I then have an option of still purchasing continuing care, or not? If I do, that means that in the first year of insuring you don’t need to purchase continuing care.  Jane

Answer:

Jane,

In the scenario you describe, you can pick up the continuing care option in year 2 but any illnesses in the first year would be considered pre-existing for the continuing care option going forward. In other words, you have to get continuing care now to have it apply to illnesses that occur in the first year.

Laura

Purina starts to rev the pet insurance engine

Over at the Scratchings and Sniffings blog, Dr. Larry has posted a commentary on his thoughts on pet insurance.

Scratchings and Sniffings blog is the pet blog written by Yvonne Divita and sponsored by Purina. This post definitely looks like a "warm up the market" post for the pending Purina Pet Insurance launch due sometime soon.

Dr. Larry focuses on the marketing of pet insurance companies in the US. In the most part, I totally agree with what he says as they are my pet peeves too.

Pet insurance is not a way to save money, it's a way to avoid the unexpected financial spikes that a high vet bill can bring.

And there's the nuance about vet bills being "too high" as Dr. Larry puts it. The point is that it's not that vets are being unreasonable in what they charge, it's that they provide a professional service for advanced medical care and should charge accordingly. Vets can do more and more for pets and it costs money - sometimes a surprising amount of money.

As Dr. Larry closes, "The issue is finding a good policy that you can understand and will actually pay what you expect. In the next post we'll cover some questions you want to think about when shopping for pet insurance."

So, we look forward to hearing more from Dr. Larry on what makes the perfect pet insurance policy.

Update: here's Dr Larry's follow up post on things to consider when buying pet insurance. Couldn't have written it better myself!

Related Post: Purina Pet Insurance in the US

Actuarial Pioneer: Laura Bennett, pet insurance actuary

The Society of Actuaries (SOA) has been building a list of the top 100 actuarial "Pioneers" as part of building the awareness of the actuarial field. To be on it, you have to be "an actuary who has blazed a trail for actuaries by creating a new application for actuarial science, or one who is among the first to apply the actuarial skill set in a non-traditional setting."

I think that pet insurance certainly qualifies in that category, don't you? And nicely enough, so does the SOA. Cool!

So, I did an actuarial Pioneer interview with the SOA a few months ago (it just went online) about the impact that being an actuary has had on my career, among other things. It's a bit of a fun mish-mash of tidbits about Embrace and me. Maybe it will inspire some aspiring actuaries to spread their wings, who knows?

I really liked the quote they selected out to highlight the whole article: " ... the smallest kindness in business goes an incredibly long way and it more often than not brings you benefits you could never have planned for." I really believe that - do you?

BTW, the picture above is not the picture I gave them for the article (this one was taken afterwards for a friend of Embrace) but I would really have loved to have used it instead of the goofy "corporate" one I sent instead. Oh well. Must get my "official" photos reshot!

"Mo’s How-to guide on getting the most out of pet insurance" on Invisible Voices

If you ever wanted a very practical and relevent summary of how to get the most out of your pet insurance, check out the guide written by Mo(-the-Magnificent), which is hosted very kindly by Deb(-the-Delightful) over at Invisible Voices.

Mo has seen it all with pet insurance and lived to tell her tail (er- tale) on Deb's many pet insurance threads. It's an absolutely fascinating read, particularly if you have any knowledge of the pet insurance companies on the market (maybe even without :))

All pet insurers should read all the discussions on pet insurance. The claim experience is where the rubber hits the road with pet insurance and if we don't collectively do better as an industry, we are never going to get beyond the flighty image of pet insurance in the US.

What say yea, pet insurers?

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Progressive Pet Insurance - now your dog and cat are insured in a collision

Welcome Progressive Insurance policyholders to Embrace!

Finally, a car insurer that gets the role of pets in our lives. Progressive has added a $500 Pet Injury Protection endorsement to all its auto insurance policies where the company will pay $500 towards vet bills from a car accident.

But why was this needed anyway? Wouldn't a pet be covered anyway if it is in an insured car?

Surprisingly, not necessarily. If someone hits your car and injures your dog or cat, the vet bills are covered under their policy under their property damage coverage (pets being property under the law) but if you have an accident and there's no other car involved or the other driver doesn't have insurance, your pet's injuries just aren't covered - up until now that is.

Of course, we all know that $500 won't take you very far if a pet is seriously injured so Embrace Pet Insurance has partnered with Progressive, along with another pet insurer, to provide full pet insurance policies to those people who want something more than just coverage while their pet is in the car. Progressive policyholders get a 5% discount too.

Embrace Pet Insurance policies add coverage for:

• accidents like being hit by a car, or injesting poison, or having an allergic reaction to a bee sting, or tearing a cruciate ligament
• cancer of all kinds like osteosarcoma or lymphoma
• hereditary conditions such as hip dysplasia, epilepsy, and skin allergies
• contagious diseases like Lyme Disease and coronavirus sickenesses
• diagnostic treatments like bloodwork, MRIs and CT scans
• alternative and complementary therapies like acupuncture, chiropractic treatments and homeopathic care
• hospitalization and return vet visits for all these conditions
• prescription drugs and dental illness care (optional)

The list goes on...

We're delighted to partner with such a far-sighted auto insurer - let's hope the dogs and cats of the US don't think they can drive the cars now!

Ask Laura: sending in my claim within 60 days if I haven't met my deductible

Question:

I chose a plan with a $500 deductible as I truly am most concerned with the major problems (and I couldn’t afford the premiums for a lower level). However, I notice your instructions indicate that claims over $50 must be submitted within 60 days of the vet visit. Do I still have to submit all claims before I reach the $500 deductible?

What would make the most sense to me is to save all bills, and then if, and only if, I get past the $500 would I submit for reimbursement. I would want to be able to include any lesser bills incurred during the year that would contribute towards the $500, but by that point they would be past 60 days old. If I have to keep submitting claims all year that I’m not going to get reimbursed for (because I have not yet met the $500 deductible) then this plan sounds like too much work.

Please advise.

Answer:

You are absolutely right - saving them until you meet your deductible total makes the most sense and that's what we've unofficially been allowing behind the scenes. But no point hiding the good news and I'm glad you asked this so I can say that we won't enforce the 60 days when you haven't met your deductible total.

Do make sure to send your invoices in in a timely manner when you finally go over the deductible and certainly be sure to send them in within 60 days of the end of your policy year so we can wrap up things up for our underwriters in a timely manner.

Thanks for that excellent point - I'll make sure to update the instructions on the claims as soon as I can.

My visit to the NYC Veterinary Specialists

I was recently in New York and thought I'd spend a spare hour visiting one of the most sophisticated veterinary hospitals you can find in the US - the NYC Veterinary Specialists.

One of our clients took her cat to this clinic for emergency treatment for kidney issues and so I thought it would be a good opportunity to stop by to say hello and see what all the fuss is about.

Boy, was I impressed! The facilities and the people are top notch and as I was touring around, I couldn't help but think that many human hospitals would be happy to have the tools at hand - CT scan, MRI machine, ultrasound, isolation ward, intensive care ward and so on. All the modern medical marvels that until recently were only available for humans.

But let me tell you, a visit to this facility will set you back big time. For example, our policyholder's cat spent 2 nights in ICU, received 1 unit of blood, an oncology consult, plus other miscellanous items and the bill came to just over $3,000.

That's top notch quality at top notch prices.

Facilities like this one are exactly why you need Embrace Pet Insurance - you never need to think about money in the middle of an extremely emotional health emergency.

[Special thanks to Dave and Tim for taking time out of their extremely hectic day to spend time with me]

Purina Pet Insurance in the US

After Purina announced their pet insurance launch in Canada, I thought I'd check around for info on a possible Purina entry in the US and low and behold (pats on the back please!), I found an interesting pet insurance job posting on the Purina site (go to the Purina Career Site and use job search feature to search on the term "pet insurance" or specifically job number "nest-00006356"):

Medical and Underwriting Director
PurinaCare Nestle Purina PetCare Company

POSITION SUMMARY: The Medical & Underwriting Director will serve as key member of the executive management team. Plans and oversees all aspects of the organization's pre-sale and post-sale underwriting procedures as well as reviewing complicated claims, and high-dollar claims. This position is critical to the successful management of the company's claims loss ratio.

The rest of the description and requirements are on the Purina site.

So it looks like Purina will be coming to the US although I'm not sure when. I guess they won't be using VPI as their pet insurance employee benefit for long!

BTW, Purina bought a stake in Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) in 1998 but sold their stake later. Obviously, they never lost their interest in pet insurance after all these years.

Purina is not the only pet food company to get into pet insurance. IAMS owns about 9% of VPI it bought in 2003.

Wonder what Hills, Mars, and Royal Canin are going to do in response? Will everyone jump on the pet insurance bandwagon?

Update: I met up with the Purina Pet Insurance folks at the recent NAVC conference in Orlando and they tell me that they are launching in Spring 2008 so only a few months to go before they go live. Bring it on, I say!

Related Post:
Purina Starts to Rev the Pet Insurance Engine