Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Embrace Pet Insurance featured in MainStreet.com article

Last week, Meredith Blake posted an article over at MainStreet.com on pet insurance titled "How Much Do You Love Your Pet?" . MainStreet is the online addition to TheStreet.com where Embrace has been covered before in an article on pet spending (we're such media hounds - LOL)

...But does pet insurance make sense for you? It all depends on the attitude you have towards your furry friend. “There’s a subset of pet owners who treat their pets like their children," says Bennett. "If you’re the kind of person who would pay whatever it takes to make them better, pet insurance really is for you. If your pet’s disposable, then it’s not. You have to ask-are you a pet owner, or a pet parent?”

Bennett stresses that insurance is really intended for unexpected medical emergencies—the animal equivalent of “catastrophic coverage” for humans—and generally is not designed to cover routine check-ups or basic preventative care. For most pet owners, it makes more sense to pay out of pocket for these occasional visits. What becomes prohibitively expensive are the unexpected mishaps, like an infection or a broken limb. And as advanced treatments like CAT scans, prescription drugs, and specialized surgery are becoming more available for pets, it’s easy to rack up thousands of dollars in veterinary costs.

“It used to be if your dog got cancer, there wasn’t much you could do. Now there are all sorts of choices,” explains Bennett. This might be great news for your pet, but it can be catastrophic for your budget.

They go on to talk about an experience that Wendy Wilcox, one of our Embraced pet parents, and Termyte her cat had with Embrace's insurance. We couldn't ask for a better testimonial from Wendy if we tried.

Wilcox would do it all over again, even if Termyte hadn’t gotten sick. “I don’t want to have to decide, ‘Am I going to put them down, or am I going to spend the money?’”

Read the full article for more...

BTW, I thought it was funny that one of the tags for the article was "Howard Stern"! You'll just have to go read the article to find out why.

Related posts: 

• $2,456 claim: 1 year old mixed breed cat with bacterial sepsis with reactive lymph node
• Embrace media mentions
• Embraced pet case studies

Ask Laura: what to do for a kitty cat's birthday?

While not exactly a pet health question, it's a fun one for a cloudy day.

Question:
I am planning on throwing a first birthday party for my kittens...they will be ONE on June 13..have any suggestions? I have two kittens...one is black/white female and the other is orange/white male. They are brother, sister. I still own the mother too, so I want to incorporate her into it as well...as a celebration for giving us the babies? :-)

As you can tell..i am a HUGE cat lover. Please let me know what's best for a kitty kats first birthday presents, treats, whatever! Thanks, Elaine

Answer:
I'm definitely going to have to rely on my readers to help out here.  But in general (and in my opinion), it's hard to invite other kitty guests to a kitty party because cats are so territorial and there probably would be a lot of hissing and hiding under furniture for all involved - not fun party activities at all (unless you are the family dog LOL)

I suggest having a few human friends over to share the celebrations. And of course, there's a lot you can do to play on the cat theme:

• decorate with cat pictures, cat toys, and cat party goods. You can buy cat party goods online. You've got lots of time to browse but I just found a good selection at Birthday Express
• for the human guests, make cupcakes or cookies decorated to look like cats using small candies as eyes and mouth, shoestring licorice as whiskers, and cookies as ears. And then there's always a great cat-shaped cake if you are feeling adventurous
• for the guests of honor, you could make a cake just for them or splurge on some de-lish treats from Waggintails.
• play "find the mouse" - rub some toy mice with cat nip and hide them around the room. Place cats in room. Watch with amusement. Enjoyment all round!

I'm no Martha Stewart - what else would you suggest?

Related post: Cat and Dog Birthday Parties

Embrace Pet Insurance featured in Entrepreneur Magazine April 2008

Alex and I were featured in an article on angel investing in the April 2008 edition of Entrepreneur Magazine.

The article is titled Experience Counts: The hunt for angel investors is tough enough. Finding one who offers more than money adds to the challenge--but it's worth it.

The article refer to one of our angel investors who is a great example of a value add investor, something that can be hard to find in the angel world.

And we took a pretty good picture that day (although Alex thinks he looks like a used car salesman!)

Too bad all the cats and dogs we had in the office as well didn't make it in with us. But then you wouldn't have been able to read the article with the cloud of fur hovering around us.

Related Posts: Other media references to Embrace Pet Insurance

Ski - a dog who recovered from a cruciate ligament injury without surgery

Ski is a remarkable dog. In fact, a remarkable 3 year old Rottweiler who recovered from a cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) injury without surgery. Can you believe it?!

For those not up on their doggie sports injuries, the cruciate ligament is one of the ligaments that holds the knee in place and most veterinarians recommend surgery if a cruciate ligament is torn.

At Embrace, we see a lot of cruciate ligament claims and every single one of them has involved surgery until Rich told us the story about his remarkable dog and I just had to share it with you.

Ski's injury occurred before Ski was covered by an Embrace policy so let this be a lesson to you - get your dog insurance before you have the CL injury, not after!

So, in Rich's words, here is Ski's story:

Ski is a very good dog with remarkable energy. He obtained his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) award at just over one year old. At that time I looked for something to challenge his intelligence and energy, ultimately deciding on Agility competition.

His injury was not due to Agility, but rather a stupid accident on our nightly walk in which I stepped on his foot and he pulled away with all his strength because of the pain, resulting in torn ligaments in his knee. This was sudden extreme trauma to the knee of a dog in the very best physical condition.

While waiting for an MRI before surgery, I remembered that at the Agility camp, he had a mini consultation with an individual listed as one of the "Ten Top Veterinarians in the Chicago Area". Chicago has a lot of vets, so that accolade is not insignificant.

After her examination of Ski, X-rays, and other data, Dr. Mayer of Integrative Pet Care (IPC) felt that because of his strength, stamina, drive, and overall physical condition, he was an excellent candidate of recovery through therapy, rather than surgery, though she mentioned that reasonable doctors could disagree on the prognosis. However, she's the best and this is her specialty, so we took a chance. Thus, we began a strenuous regime of physical therapy, both at IPC and at home every single night.

Since that day, Ski has worked harder than any dog they've ever seen. His recovery has been called "nothing short of remarkable". He now runs weekly on the land treadmill at 35 or 40mph (according to the gauge, though that still seems impossible to me), in addition to more than a dozen other land-based exercises. He is master of the underwater treadmill. He has progressed to the point that not only is he walking on a inclined underwater treadmill to the maximum time they allow any dog, but we've started putting the jets toward him at full force, so it's like he's walking upstream with the salmon against a raging current. He also has more fun than any other dog they see (see the video below.)

Three months ago Dr. Mayer gave her approval for Ski to re-enter Agility training, to challenge him further and give him an outlet for his limitless energy. The restriction is that he now jumps hurdles at 8" rather than 24", though I think he easily could.

Since his injury, I've talked to at least a hundred people with dogs with CCL injuries, as well as vets and medical professionals. I understand how common it is for the other leg to go out within a year. That's why our goal is to make each leg strong enough to do the work of two, when it is needed. I think we're getting close, judging from his bulging muscles.

His recovery is so impressive that one of the doctors at IPC has asked for permission to use Ski in a case study of what can be accomplished after a CCL injury. Obviously, many CCL injuries have a degenerative soft tissue disease playing a part, but that is clearly not the case with Ski. So, my hope, and my belief, is that he WILL beat the odds. That all the hard work of Ski, Dr. Mayer, IPC Staff, and myself will be rewarded with Ski living a healthy and active life until the age of 15 or 20. Sounds crazy, perhaps, but my last Rottie lived to 14, and he wasn't in this good shape.

Related Posts:
What happens when my dog's cruciate ligament tears?
How much did you say a ruptured cruciate ligament costs to treat in my dog?
My dog or cat is limping

Pet food recall - one year later

It was one year ago that the first press release hit the wires on the recall and it just went from there. We were just by-standers watching it roll out but others such as Pet Connection, Itchmo, and PetSitUSA were on the ball for all of us and made a huge difference to our awareness of what was going on (although as many will note over the next few days, little has changed structurally.)

Gina just wrote a poignant summary of how it all started in her blog entry Where Were You a Year Ago. I'm sure there will be more.

Please give a thought to the thousands of pets that died and their pet parents who still mourn them. Time might heal but it doesn't change what happened.

Customer reviews for Embrace Pet Insurance

When we email out every claim decision at Embrace, we ask our policyholders to go to PetInsuranceReview.com and review their experience with Embrace.

We ask this no matter what the decision might be, even if we didn't pay anything out, even if we declined a claim. That's how confident we are in our service at Embrace. And it shows in our reviews.

Here are the most recent examples of what our customers are saying about us (some spelling corrected for readability):

You are Incredible
A little over a year ago our new 3 month old pup "STORM" had a horrible accident when he was attack by a neighbor's malamute. The dog grabbed Storm's leg by getting his head under our fence . The leg was just barley hanging on. We rushed him to the emergency vet.clinic where they we able to save his life and with 4 surgeries they were able to save his leg.We had only taken Embrace out a few days before this happened.You were there from the beginning and followed us through the entire process...not only paying our claims; but also encouraging us as we went through the ups and downs of Storm's recovery. A couple of month ago he started having problems with his left back leg. He had a luxation of the patella and had surgery to keep it in place and is now recovering form that surgery. EMBRACE has been right there for us. In less than a month after the surgery,the claims have been paid to our satisfaction. It would be great if our our health insurance would be as efficient. As long has we have dogs ,we'll have EMBRACE! Norma & Rich Kern

Caring, warm, involved staff!
I wish that my own health insurance personnel were as caring as the Embrace staff. They kept up communication with me throughout the whole process and repeatedly reminded me to call if I had any concerns or questions. When I called, I was connected to someone who immediately knew who I was without needing to know my policy number, name, social security number, date of birth, mother's maiden name, grandfather's nickname, shoe size, favorite color, etc., as does my own health insurance. She even asked how my little missy was. How's that for amazing? Real people really caring. I say, G-D bless them with the same kindness they ALL show to us! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Charlotte Miskin

Embrace is the best for your Pets!
I investigated all of the Pet Insurance Policies on the market & Embrace is the best & way above the others for coverage & flexibility. They give you control over your deductible & out of pocket you pay. The maximum is per year, not per incident, & they cover any hereditary issues your pet may develop. The premiums are very reasonable also & less than some others companies who offer less coverage. I have made my first two claims & they do exactly what they say they will & the claims process is very informative & easy. If they cannot process on time they let you know & keep you updated. I am sooooo happy with Embrace & have already recommended them time & time again. I do not want my babies to be without them - I can have our large dogs covered alleviating the fear I cannot afford to, medically, take care of them. This is an absolute must for anyone with a pet!!! Debbie Singer

Professional, great customer service, no surprises
My experience with Embrace was very positive. No "small print".. WYSIWYG...very knowledgeable and professional staff.. refreshing in this day.. Bev McEvoy

Great company!
I just received a payment on my first claim with Embrace. They decided that ALL the charges that I submitted were coverable, including tax, and the claims payment was exactly what I hoped for. The claim was for charges associated with a lower back injury that my dog suffered. I was concerned that the claim would be denied as a preexisting condition because he had had trouble with his lower back once before we bought the Embrace policy--most insurance companies would find any excuse to call that a preexisting condition. But not Embrace. They contacted me to ask for details about the two injuries, and I appreciated the opportunity to explain why the two injuries were unrelated. Communication with customer service was easy, and they kept me posted on the status of my claim. I was a longtime customer of VPI prior to switching to Embrace, and I'll never look back! Janette

(blush)

Yes, we've had a couple of disgruntled reviews, there's no pleasing everyone, but with a top-tier score well over 9 (at the time of writing, we're at 9.34) with over 40 reviews (more than any other pet insurance company apart from one), we're pretty pleased that our customer service speaks for itself - at least our customers do anyway!

Thanks Embraced pet parents - we love you too!

Related Posts:
Who or What is PetInsuranceReview.com Anyway?
Evangelism at its best
Invisible Voices blog entries on pet insurance
"Mo’s How-to guide on getting the most out of pet insurance" on Invisible Voices

Alex Krooglik, Embrace Co-Founder, interviewed over at Doolitler

Dr. Patty Khuly is running a series on pet insurance over at her Doolittler blog and interviewed Alex about pet insurance and Embrace.

Alex, how did you get into this line of work?
It started with a business plan back in 2003. While I was at Wharton I was part of a team that won against a bunch of other teams with a pet insurance plan. I’ve always loved business and working for myself and, being competitive by nature, running with the idea seemed natural.

Apart from being a fellow Wharton MBA, what uniquely qualifies you or anyone to get into the insurance game?
I spent several years as a product manager at one of the nation’s largest and most innovative insurance companies where I got excellent training on many aspects of insurance from some awfully smart people. And Laura, my business partner, is the only full-time pet insurance actuary in the country. Embrace is run by people who really know insurance. One other key qualification is to not have allergies to cats or dogs when they come into the office to visit!

Check out the rest...

And in the meantime, how do you like our less formal picture of Alex, wearing his "puppy power" bands. We only take ourselves seriously at Embrace when we need to :)

Blog clean up - what I've been up to lately

Some of you may have noticed that I've played around with the look of the Embrace Pet Insurance blog.

No, I haven't changed the mast head, although that's on the list for a future distraction, but I suddenly noticed that my blog had a case of tweak-itis. You know - a tweak here, a tweak there, and all of a sudden, you wind up with a bunch of clutter that distracts from the scintillating topic at hand (that being pet health insurance of course!) 

So, I've done a bit of a spring cleaning (says she, up to her armpits in snow) and focused on minimalism for now - until I tweek it again of course :).

For those of you looking, the list of all the pet insurance companies in the US, Canada, UK and rest of the world are in the Useful Pet Insurance Resources section.

For the other interesting sites, go to the Useful Pet-Related Resources page.

They are both highlighted in the left hand menus.

Cheers!

Embraced pets: say hello to Nestle, the Bernese Mountain Dog

I've been a little swamped lately and have been spending what spare time I've had playing around with the look of the blog, not blogging - where are my priorities!

So, since none of that is very interesting to you, I thought I'd throw up some cute pictures of Nestle, one of our latest Embraced pets.

He's a 1 year old Bernese Mountain Dog living in Bossier City, Louisiana with his mom, Emily who got him a policy with at $200 annual deductible, $10,000 annual maximum, a 10% copay and the continuing care option all for $27.20 a month.

This is great coverage as Bernese Mountain Dogs are more susceptible than mixed breed dogs to:

• hip and elbow dysplasia,
• bloat,
• allergies,
• cataracts,
• cancer
• hypothyroidism, and so on .

Since we cover these breed-specific conditions in our dog insurance, Emily doesn't have to worry about unexpected financial burden should Nestle contract one of these conditions.

Related Posts:
How much did you say hip dysplasia surger cost for my dog?