What the new Embrace / RLI partnership means for you - new terms and conditions

Monday, August 16, 2010

What the new Embrace / RLI partnership means for you - new terms and conditions

As you may know, we have a new partnership with RLI Corp who is underwriting the Embrace Pet Insurance policies in certain states at present (for an up-to-date list, see the Embrace Pet Insurance website.)

As part of that transition, we have updated the Embrace Pet Insurance terms and conditions. I have summarized the RLI differences below - I think you will find these to your liking.

Improvement:
The RLI terms and conditions document is only 8 pages long so it is much more readable than our previous that was 20+ pages long!
Clarification of our current practice:
We removed the term UCR (usual, customary and reasonably payments) regarding our claim payments and clarified that we pay based on the actual vet bill the pet parent paid - since this is what we actually do. No point confusing things unnecessarily.
Clarification of our current practice:
The claims appeals process has been added – pretty much what we do now with the addition of a second appeal determined by an impartial veterinarian.
Relaxation of terms:
We removed the arbitration clause - RLI's legal group prefer it that way
Relaxation of terms:
The claims submission period has been increased to 90 days, up from 60 days it used to be
Moving some coverage pieces around:
We used to cover dental illness in the Drugs & Dental optional coverage but many people found it expensive and hard to understand. So, we moved the dental illness coverage to our new Dental Rewards coverage, which is packaged with dental cleanings (more on this new coverage later this week). As a result, the Drugs & Dental optional coverage has been renamed by Prescription Drug optional coverage with a corresponding decrease in cost.
Coverage increase:
This is a biggie - we have removed the annual sublimit for continuing care issues. Now, any conditions, new or ongoing, comes under the full annual limit you've picked. We have added a new $50,000 lifetime limit. This is a wonderful improvement for our pet parents.
Clarification of our coverage:
We have now clarified that preventative sterilization surgery is excluded, such as for treatment for cryptorchidism, chimerism, or chromasonal abnormalities. We do not cover spay or neuter in our insurance coverage (it is covered in our Wellness Rewards coverage) but it was unclear what we do for preventative sterilizations surgery. While it's not covered in the insurance coverage, it is covered in our wellness coverage.

In addition to these insurance policy changes, we have also updated the Wellness Rewards coverage and added another coverage level - Wellness Rewards Plus. More details on the wellness coverage tomorrow.

I am really excited about all these changes. Most of them come in response to your comments and suggestions about our policy terms.

So you can thank your fellow Embraced pet parents for these delicious changes that will make your Embrace experience all the more better.

Download RLI terms and conditions 05.10
Download Declaration Page and Schedule of Insured Pets sample (these would be specific to you and your pets)

Posted by Laura on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 05:01 AM in Embrace Pet Insurance, Embrace products, passion for pets, pet insurance , pet insurance news, RLI Corp | Permalink

Comments

As part of that transition, we have updated the Embrace Pet Insurance terms and conditions. I have summarized the RLI differences below - I think you will find these to your liking.

Improvement:
The RLI terms and conditions document is only 8 pages long so it is much more readable than our previous that was 20+ pages long!
Clarification of our current practice:
We removed the term UCR (usual, customary and reasonably payments) regarding our claim payments and clarified that we pay based on the actual vet bill the pet parent paid - since this is what we actually do. No point confusing things unnecessarily.
Clarification of our current practice:
The claims appeals process has been added – pretty much what we do now with the addition of a second appeal determined by an impartial veterinarian.
Relaxation of terms:
We removed the arbitration clause - RLI's legal group prefer it that way
Relaxation of terms:
The claims submission period has been increased to 90 days, up from 60 days it used to be
Moving some coverage pieces around:
We used to cover dental illness in the Drugs & Dental optional coverage but many people found it expensive and hard to understand. So, we moved the dental illness coverage to our new Dental Rewards coverage, which is packaged with dental cleanings (more on this new coverage later this week). As a result, the Drugs & Dental optional coverage has been renamed by Prescription Drug optional coverage with a corresponding decrease in cost.
Coverage increase:
This is a biggie - we have removed the annual sublimit for continuing care issues. Now, any conditions, new or ongoing, comes under the full annual limit you've picked. We have added a new $50,000 lifetime limit. This is a wonderful improvement for our pet parents.
Clarification of our coverage:
We have now clarified that preventative sterilization surgery is excluded, such as for treatment for cryptorchidism, chimerism, or chromasonal abnormalities. We do not cover spay or neuter in our insurance coverage (it is covered in our Wellness Rewards coverage) but it was unclear what we do for preventative sterilizations surgery. While it's not covered in the insurance coverage, it is covered in our wellness coverage.