If you bought an Embrace dog insurance policy after the start of August 2009, you would have noticed a change to our policy's waiting period and a new Embrace form for the new orthopedic waiting period. [Sorry - it is a useful form :)]
What is all this about you ask?
First, let's back up a bit. Our old terms and conditions had a waiting period defined as:
14 days for accidents or illnesses except for cruciate injuries which is 6 months (paraphrased)
(The waiting period is the length of time you have to wait after you buy your insurance policy before your coverage kicks in.)
Furthermore, under the old terms and conditions, you could reduce your cruciate waiting period to 14 days if your veterinarian examined your pet's knees and found them fit as a fiddle and faxed in to tell us so. Then we'd reduce the waiting period down to 14 days.
The new terms and conditions extend the cruciate waiting period to all orthopedic conditions for dogs as follows:
14 days for accidents or illnesses except for orthopedic conditions, which is 6 months.
For cats, it's just 14 days for accidents and illnesses - there's nothing different for orthopedic issues (cats just don't seem to have as many ortho issues as dogs - lucky cats!)
In a similar way to the previous terms and conditions, have your veterinarian examine your pet for orthopedic issues using the Canine Orthopedic Exam Report Card to document his or her findings and fax the result into Embrace.
We have more details on the Canine Orthopedic Exam & Waiver Process page on the Embrace Pet Insurance website to answer your questions such as:
- what the process is to get the ortho exam done (use the new form!)
- when should you get the orthopedic examination done (any time after policy purchase), and
- what happens if an orthopedic issue should show up on the examination (the waiting period reduces down for the other orthopedic areas)
Don't forget though - you must get the exam done after you have purchased your policy.
Questions?
