Vets demanding immediate payment

glentoran99

molerat wrote: »

If they want paying straight away it is up to them - do Tesco let you take your shopping home and send you a bill ? Many practices spend an awful lot of time and effort chasing unpaid invoices.

No but when the deliver it its normally a few days until it comes out

Lily-Rose_3

Pollycat wrote: »

None of our cats ever needed very expensive treatment (worst was x-rays and a 3 day stay after being hit by a car which cost about £250) but we always paid at every visit.

I remember that once I wandered off without paying (cat was going back to the vet the following day) and they sent me a bill with added 'credit' charges which I disputed and they waived.

Hope your dog is ok.

Same here. Haven't paid more than 500 pound in vet bills, in 15 years. (In total.) I think cat treatment is a lot cheaper. Vet bills for dogs are very expensive. Often 7-10 times more than it would be for a cat.

It's a tricky game, because I guess the vets have a reason for charging what they do, but 5 grand is a LOT to have to cough up and it's not a matter of not caring about poor Rover as bearcat16 implied; people simply do not have the money.

So that comment that 'the treatment is not so critical now is it?' is very harsh and unfair. And it's all very well saying 'get insurance' as some will say, but many do have it, and it doesn't cover everything. Let's face it, insurance companies do like to put exemptions and restrictions in!

Ideally, there would be a cap on vet bills, like there are with dental, (say a maximum of a thousand,) but that's never going to happen! :eek:

Person_one

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Ideally, there would be a cap on vet bills, like there are with dental, (say a maximum of a thousand,) but that's never going to happen! :eek:

Well no, we'd need some sort of animal NHS that would pay the rest of the costs from public money, but as the human NHS is currently being dismantled I can't really see that happening!

I've never insured my dogs, but I have always made sure that I have a credit card with a big credit limit ready just in case.

Pollycat

Pollycat wrote: »

None of our cats ever needed very expensive treatment (worst was x-rays and a 3 day stay after being hit by a car which cost about £250) but we always paid at every visit.

I remember that once I wandered off without paying (cat was going back to the vet the following day) and they sent me a bill with added 'credit' charges which I disputed and they waived.

Hope your dog is ok.

I mis-remembered this.

It was when my cat had died, he'd been kept at the vets as he was dehydrated as he had a bad abcess and they were trying to get fluids into him.
They had him from Saturday morning and rang Monday morning to tell us he'd died.
I went up to say 'goodbye' to him and collect his basket and in floods of tears just walked straight out of the surgery in a total fugue.

I wasn't very impressed to receive the bill plus a fee so just went up to pay and they waived the additional charge.

FreeBear

Lily-Rose wrote: »

And it's all very well saying 'get insurance' as some will say, but many do have it, and it doesn't cover everything. Let's face it, insurance companies do like to put exemptions and restrictions in!

If you take on caring for an older animal, quite often insurance is unobtainable. Got my cat when it was around 12 years old - No chance of insuring it.

glentoran99

FreeBear wrote: »

If you take on caring for an older animal, quite often insurance is unobtainable. Got my cat when it was around 12 years old - No chance of insuring it.

Not that I am suggesting insurance fraud but how would an insurer know if the cat was 12 or 6 (for example) when you got it and when it needed treatment?


Similarly for "pre existing" conditions how would an insurer know if you didn't tell them?

krlyr

glentoran99 wrote: »

Not that I am suggesting insurance fraud but how would an insurer know if the cat was 12 or 6 (for example) when you got it and when it needed treatment?


Similarly for "pre existing" conditions how would an insurer know if you didn't tell them?

Because your cat may have been registered with your vet for 10 years, making it impossible to be 6. It may have symptoms of a condition that indicate it happened at least a period of time ago (e.g. healed fracture on an x-ray). There may be notes of you visiting the vet about a limp or a tummy issue prior to taking out insurance. This is why insurers often request full veterinary notes on a first claim.

Yes, I'm sure there are many cases where you could get away with it - but as you say, that is insurance fraud. It's also what raises the cost of insurance for everyone using it honestly.

I could claim my GSD was a crossbreed and it would have halved the cost for me - but as it is, him being a GSD puts him at higher risk of expensive issues like hip dysplasia, cruciate ligament tears, bloat and so on - and that will cost the insurers more if I claim. I don't feel I'm paying an unfair premium, especially as I have chosen to go out and get that breed knowing that they can be prone to those issues. I would feel it more unfair if I was paying more for a different breed than was less prone to problems and less likely to cost the insurers though, because other people were committing insurance fraud and the cost of that had to be spread out to the innocent customers.



To the OP, yes, as you have unfortunately learned the hard way - this is fairly common. Specialist treatment is expensive, and they are not obliged to offer a payment plan or any form of credit. Some may choose to, others may choose to have restrictions (e.g. I know some will do direct claims with PetPlan due to their good reputation for paying out), some may do what's called a pre-authorisation (you give permission for them to speak to your insurers, the insurers promise payment ahead of treatment), and some may just refuse it at all.

A vet cannot refuse emergency treatment to your pet, but this could simply be sedating and offering pain relief until you can pay for further treatment - and the nature of specialist referalls means that it's often 'optional' rather than 'lifesaving'.

It's one of the reasons I have both a savings fund and a credit card - thankfully I've not had to use either, but at least they are there to fund treatment until the insurance paid out.

borkid

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Regrettably, you will have to tell them to keep your dog until you have the money (or the credit card.)

I know people need to be paid, but people comparing it with 'getting your shopping at Tesco' and then expecting to pay for it later is hardly the same is it?! You choose to buy that, and it doesn't cost two grand! How is anyone meant to have that kind of money to fork out?! At least you did get the dog treated, and didn't just abandon it like some do!

Pretty bad that the insurance won't cover anywhere near the amount you need! What's the point of having it?

And yes it is similar to having a costly unexpected house repair isn't it? When we owned a house some years back, we had to borrow several times (on credit cards and bank loans,) to pay for costly unexpected house repairs, and my friend has just had to do the same for an unexpected vet bill of two grand!

As I said, you will just have to say 'sorry I don't have the money, at the mo, so you will have to keep Fido til I DO get it if you need the money before I take him.'

Can't get blood out of a stone can you?!

That will make the bill even larger.

borkid

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Same here. Haven't paid more than 500 pound in vet bills, in 15 years. (In total.) I think cat treatment is a lot cheaper. Vet bills for dogs are very expensive. Often 7-10 times more than it would be for a cat.

It's a tricky game, because I guess the vets have a reason for charging what they do, but 5 grand is a LOT to have to cough up and it's not a matter of not caring about poor Rover as bearcat16 implied; people simply do not have the money.

So that comment that 'the treatment is not so critical now is it?' is very harsh and unfair. And it's all very well saying 'get insurance' as some will say, but many do have it, and it doesn't cover everything. Let's face it, insurance companies do like to put exemptions and restrictions in!

Ideally, there would be a cap on vet bills, like there are with dental, (say a maximum of a thousand,) but that's never going to happen! :eek:

The most we'd paid in 48 years was £250 at anyone time until recently our dear little kittie decided it was a good idea to go exploring and managed to tear the tendons in her leg one Friday evening. Xrays, keeping in for 5 nights, operation etc came to £1000. Later she needed another one to remove a pin from the leg £100 and we were only charged for the cost of the medications.

Our vet is good though and lets you know upfront if its going to be a large bill and the approximate cost. We don't have pet insurance but do save in a separate account for vets fees as you never know what will happen.

Lily-Rose_3

Pollycat wrote: »

I mis-remembered this.

It was when my cat had died, he'd been kept at the vets as he was dehydrated as he had a bad abcess and they were trying to get fluids into him.
They had him from Saturday morning and rang Monday morning to tell us he'd died.
I went up to say 'goodbye' to him and collect his basket and in floods of tears just walked straight out of the surgery in a total fugue.

I wasn't very impressed to receive the bill plus a fee so just went up to pay and they waived the additional charge.

Sorry to hear that Pollycat. How sad.

borkid wrote: »

The most we'd paid in 48 years was £250 at anyone time until recently our dear little kittie decided it was a good idea to go exploring and managed to tear the tendons in her leg one Friday evening. Xrays, keeping in for 5 nights, operation etc came to £1000. Later she needed another one to remove a pin from the leg £100 and we were only charged for the cost of the medications.

Our vet is good though and lets you know upfront if its going to be a large bill and the approximate cost. We don't have pet insurance but do save in a separate account for vets fees as you never know what will happen.

Gosh that IS high! I think we have been lucky!

Person_one wrote: »

Well no, we'd need some sort of animal NHS that would pay the rest of the costs from public money, but as the human NHS is currently being dismantled I can't really see that happening!

I've never insured my dogs, but I have always made sure that I have a credit card with a big credit limit ready just in case.

Yeah good idea.

And yes it would be nice to have a 'pet' NHS.