Vet asking me to sign for unlimited financial liability ahead of routine op

bglamb

I had my kitten booked in for a simple operation (neuter and microchip, £60), and when I arrived I was asked to sign a form saying that I would assume all financial liability for anything that the vet did in the interests of my kitten's wellbeing.

I understand that this is to cover unexpected emergency treatment (and that it would be very rare to be needed, and that they would call me first, etc, etc) but they refused to put an upper limit on it and 'necessary for the animal's wellbeing' was entirely at the vet's discretion.

I asked them if any change could be made to the contract and they said no, so I said that I couldn't sign an essentially blank cheque, as I don't have unlimited money. They said I could instruct them not to do any life-saving procedures (which is not what I'm after, I'm happy to pay for emergency treatment!), but even then they would still want me to sign the 'blank cheque'.

They said every vet has the same policy and that literally everyone signs it, which I can believe, but at the same time, signing contracts like this seems really inadvisable!

I ended up taking my kitten home again, but now I'm not sure what to do. I looked at insurance but, as seems obvious, insurance has a limit to the liability they accept, so would still never cover a blank cheque.

Am I just being a weird pedant here? Is there any way around this? Is this not a terrifying bit of paper to sign?! Should I shop around for a more sane vet, or is this going to be an issue wherever I go? I had thought a vet would just wrap up the cost of this kind of thing in the cost of the operation. I'd be happy to pay a bit more up front for them to assume the liability.

tacpot12

I would suggest you call around a few other vets and ask what their wording is on their forms . I would be reticent about signing such an open-ended commitment.

You should have your kitten insured anyway. We have our pets insured with PetPlan. Assuming the policy will cover emergency treatment arising from a routine operation (this is something you should check), then you might agree to limit the cost of emergency treatment to the insurance limits. 

I would tell the vet what limit you will pay for (e.g. £1000 or the limit that the insurance will pay for), but if they want to spend more than this, then either they pay, or they put the kitten down. If they won't treat the kitten on this basis, then find a vet that will.

They really should not be pernickety with an owner that wants to neuter their kitten. The fact that no other clients object to this is  irrelvant, you are a client (if they want you) and are paying your money for their professional services, so they should deal with professionally and that means a degree of negotiation on the terms of any treatment.  

bglamb

Thanks Tacpot.

Not sure why you would say I "should have the kitten insured anyway". I have enough liquidity to cover medical bills if needed, so insurance would be a net loss (on average).

They were professional, but refused to amend the contract under any circumstances. The business was a chain, so I imagine this stuff is mandated by Head Office. I'll try calling some independent vets.

Silvertabby

This is certainly not something our vet has ever done.  Perhaps because he is independent (family owned practice) and not part of a chain.

MovingForwards

I've never had that, been told a price, even when it's a major op and would be contacted if there's problems.  

Find a different vet.

KxMx

Never heard of that either. 
Definitely find another Vet.

In terms of insurance obviously I don't know your means but diagnostics or an emergency out of hours vet stay can run into hundreds if not thousands, and some treatments are also very expensive.

I myself had a £3k bill for diagnostics only when my  cat was alive, thankfully she had always been insured. 

bglamb

MovingForwards said:

I've never had that, been told a price, even when it's a major op and would be contacted if there's problems.  

Well yeah, this is what they said, but then this clause was hidden in the fine print that they tried to get me to just sign off as I was handing over the cat.

bglamb

KxMx said:

Never heard of that either. 
Definitely find another Vet.

For reference this is Vets4Pets, which have about 20 practices in my city alone, so this is not some rogue agent. I strongly suspect most people just don't read all of the fine print (by which I mean their other customers, not you).

I was assured before I took my cat in, and again when I dropped my cat off, that I wouldn't be liable for anything I didn't agree to, that they would call me first etc, but then this was in the "fine print".

KxMx said:

In terms of insurance obviously I don't know your means but diagnostics or an emergency out of hours vet stay can run into hundreds if not thousands, and some treatments are also very expensive.
I myself had a £3k bill for diagnostics only when my  cat was alive, thankfully she had always been insured. 

In terms of insurance, I can afford the kind of limits that insurers insure up to, so I'd rather just put that monthly fee into an account (along with the saved money from all the other things I don't get insured) and just pay the odd bill that comes in. If it wasn't profitable for the insurers, they wouldn't offer it, so I save insurance for the things that I really can't afford (like travel/medical insurance), and accept that sometimes I just have to pay the odd vet bill.

Undervalued

bglamb said:

KxMx said:

Never heard of that either. 
Definitely find another Vet.

For reference this is Vets4Pets, which have about 20 practices in my city alone, so this is not some rogue agent. I strongly suspect most people just don't read all of the fine print (by which I mean their other customers, not you).

I was assured before I took my cat in, and again when I dropped my cat off, that I wouldn't be liable for anything I didn't agree to, that they would call me first etc, but then this was in the "fine print".

KxMx said:

In terms of insurance obviously I don't know your means but diagnostics or an emergency out of hours vet stay can run into hundreds if not thousands, and some treatments are also very expensive.
I myself had a £3k bill for diagnostics only when my  cat was alive, thankfully she had always been insured. 

In terms of insurance, I can afford the kind of limits that insurers insure up to, so I'd rather just put that monthly fee into an account (along with the saved money from all the other things I don't get insured) and just pay the odd bill that comes in. If it wasn't profitable for the insurers, they wouldn't offer it, so I save insurance for the things that I really can't afford (like travel/medical insurance), and accept that sometimes I just have to pay the odd vet bill.

In a medical emergency there may not be time to call you first. What would you say if the vet said to you "sorry your cat died, we could probably have saved it but you weren't answering your phone to give the go ahead"?

bglamb

Undervalued said:
In a medical emergency there may not be time to call you first. What would you say if the vet said to you "sorry your cat died, we could probably have saved it but you weren't answering your phone to give the go ahead"?

Exactly, and this is one of the things that I asked when they said they would always seek my consent first.

I said I'd be happy to authorise a payment in advance up to a particular amount. Or to pay a set amount up-front to them as insurance on that one operation. Or to say "I have insurance up to £10,000", or something. There's lots of solutions, but they wanted a blank cheque.

If the cat needs life-saving treatment that costs x, and x is more than my insurance, or more than I can afford, and they can't get me on the phone, then I don't want them to do it, obviously. Everyone has a limit!

You could just as easily ask "How would you feel if they called you up and said that they did life-saving treatment that cost more than you could possibly ever afford and was above your insurance limit?"

emmajones1976

You arent going to rack up £10k in a few hours though, unless you plan on being uncontactable for ages.