Pet Insurance Guide Podcast: Recent Episodes
Dr. Doug Kenney
Helping veterinarians and pet owners understand the strategic role pet insurance can play in paying for a pet's healthcare expenses.
Conversation with Allen Kamrava, the Founder and CEO of Eusoh, about why the company discontinued its innovative community sharing platform sharing pet healthcare expenditures in September, 2022.
Eusoh had been offering this coverage to pet owners since 2018.
Steps pet owners can take to keep their pet insurance affordable in the face of premium increases over the lifetime of their pet.
Interview with Anne Tomsic, the CEO of Preventive Vet, about how pet insurance is great to help pet parents pay for unexpected and expensive veterinary bills, it's preferable to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.
Interview with Preventive Vet CoFounder and CEO, Anne Tomsic about her experience with pet insurance having insured all of her pets for over 20 years.
Interview with Allison Rye, hospital administrator at Bay Beach Vets. We discuss pet insurance, 3rd party financing, VetBilling, etc. She provides a "how to" instruction manual on how to make all these options work together to provide great customer service to the clients they serve.
Discussion with Kathy Cavanagh, client care coordinator at a large veterinary emergency/specialty hospital about the benefits of offering multiple payment options to clients who cannot afford the cost of care their doctors recommend.
Interview with Dr. Barden Greenfield, a pet dentist about the difference in dental accidents and illnesses, the most common problems he treats in each category and the costs of treatment.
Which category is most important in dogs vs. cats and large dogs vs. small dogs.
Also a discussion about steps pet owners can take to prevent dental problem in their pets.
Discussion of Eusoh's partnership with FirstVet, a televet service that decreases unnecessary veterinary visits thereby savings members money they spend on their pet's healthcare.
Dr. John Faught was a guest on the podcast back in 2015 (Episode 33). At that time he had 2 practices in Austin, Texas. Now the practice has expanded to 5 locations in Austin and 2 practices in Denver, Colorado. When we talked before, he was recommending primarily Trupanion pet insurance to his clients, but hadn't yet gotten on board with Trupanion's software that allows real-time claim pre-approvals and direct payment to the veterinary practice. Now all 7 practices are using the software and he talks about his experience with it and how it has changed the way they talk about pet insurance with clients.
It's likely that a majority of pet owners cannot afford to pay several thousand dollars out-of-pocket if their pet suffers an unexpected healthcare event.
One thing that sticks out in my interview with Suzanne Cannon, CoFounder of VetBilling, is that just because a pet owner cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket all at once doesn't mean they cannot afford the care needed for their pet.
Suzanne's personal story illustrates this. Even though she had a pet insurance policy for her dog, when faced with a $4000 expense, she couldn't pay it, file a claim and wait for reimbursement. This is a significant shortcoming of pet insurance as we have talked about in the past several episodes of the podcast.
Suzanne shares why VetBilling is different from in-house payment plans that veterinarians have likely tried in the past.
She also shares some success stories from primary care veterinarians as well as emergency/specialty practices.
VetBilling also offers wellness care payment plans, pet savings accounts and pre-payment plans.
Veterinarians should consider adding VetBilling as one of their options that clients can use to pay for their pet's healthcare.
Interview with Bob Richardson, President of Veterinary Care Plans (VCP) about how their payment plans are helping pet owners budget for their pet's healthcare expenses.
Interview with Dr. Ezra Steinberg, a veterinary surgeon about how pet insurance works in the emergency and specialty hospital setting.
Kent Kruse and Dr. Doug Kenney discuss the main limiting factor preventing the pet insurance industry from reaching a much higher percentage of pet owners and their pets.
Discussion with Kent Kruse on whether veterinarians should recommend specific pet insurance companies to their clients or not.
Discussion with Kent Kruse on how veterinarian can recommend and increase utilization of pet insurance in their practices allowing them to practice best medicine and create a practice culture where everyone thrives.
Interview with pet owner who initially insured 5 cats, but built up enough savings to be able to eventually drop the pet insurance.
Interview with Scott Taylor, President of Spot Pet Insurance Company on what sets them apart from the rest of the industry.
Interview with Marc Atiyeh, Founder of Pawp, an alternative to pet insurance offering 24/7 access to a team of veterinarians to its members for consultations about their pet's health. It also includes a $3000 emergency fund that can be accessed once annually if needed to cover emergency veterinary care.
Interview with Dr. Joe Zuckerman about why and how he recommends pet insurance to his clients.
Interview with Bob Capobianco, Vice President at Crum & Forster Pet Insurance Group discussing the various pet insurance brands within the group, most notably ASPCA Pet Insurance.
Discussion about recent changes in the Embrace policy as well as the 3 things that sets the company apart from the rest of the industry.
Interview with Jo Phillips, Program Manager at Trustedpals pet insurance company. We discuss what their policy covers and how it can be customized to fit any budget.
Interview with Taylor Worthington, an account manager with Companion Protect Pet Insurance Company discussing how their insurance is different from many other companies in the industry.
Interview with Founder and CEO, Allen Kamrava, a physician in Los Angeles. Because of his frustrations with human health insurance, he developed a community sharing platform as an alternative. Pet healthcare became the first industry to test the Eusoh model.
Audiobook sample chapter on pet insurance's role is helping end economic euthanasia of pets.
Followup interview with Samantha Haxton who has insured 4 of her own pets and we also talk about her daughter's dog who is also insured with Embrace pet insurance company. We discuss their experiences with Embrace after filing several claims and also uncover several tips that pet owners should know about pet insurance.
Interview with Sandra Boucher, Founder of 4 Paws Pet Insurance Company. She details features of their policy and what she thinks sets it apart from other companies.
Samantha Haxton shares her experience with several pet insurance companies when doing research to choose a company and policy to insure several pets.
Interview with Ashley Lyons of ASPCA Pet Insurance about filing a claim, how claims are processed and paid, appeal of a claim when it is denied, and minimizing denial of a claim due to a pre-existing condition.
An interview with Katie Huneke of Embrace Pet Insurance Company about their recently introduced product called Embrace 360 that allows veterinary hospitals to easily introduce their clients to pet insurance and electronically submit claims and quickly receive reimbursement. Instead of having to pay the veterinarian the full amount of the bill up front and then seek reimbursement from Embrace, the pet owner only has to pay the deductible, copay and for any uncovered expenses out of pocket. Embrace pays the balance of the claim by direct deposit into the veterinary hospital's bank account either the same day or within 24-48 hours.
At this time, only half of the pet insurance companies in the United States cover therapeutic diets to help treat medical conditions in dogs and cats. These diets can cost 30-70% more than the diet pets normally eat. This can present a financial burden on pet owners - especially if a pet has a chronic condition. In this episode, I'll make the case from a veterinarian's perspective that these diets should be covered by pet insurance companies.
Discuss how a pet health savings account and pet insurance can complement each other rather than compete with one another. Each serves a different purpose.
How to minimize frustrations associated with having a pet insurance claim denied because the company considered the condition pre-existing.
Interview Dr. Jason Nicholas, The Preventive Vet about the recently released update of his book "101 Essential Tips for Puppy and Dog Health and Safety." These tips have the potential to save dog owners money and even their dog's life if they put these tips into practice.
Discussion with Lynn Thompson, Associate Vice President of Special Projects at The Hartville Group about their new ASPCA policy called Complete Coverage.
In September, 2016 - Petplan introduces a new pet insurance policy that offers expanded coverage to pet owners who want to insure their pet for unexpected accidents and illnesses. In this episode, I interview Steve Shell and Elyse Cannon about the details of the new policy.
Dr. Leininger and I talk about the recently released North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA) study on attitudes of pet owners and veterinarians about pet insurance.
Interview with Rusty Sproat, Founder and CEO of Figo Pet Insurance Company discussing their policies and Pet Cloud.
Dr. McConnell gives details and answers questions about their new Whole Pet with Wellness Policy and why they believe it is the best policy on the market to cover a pet's healthcare expenses.
Interview with Dr. Chad Bailey at Cleveland Road Animal Hospital in Wooster, Ohio about how he and his staff promote pet insurance to clients and the impact it is having on his hospital and in the lives of the pets they care for.
Interview with Stephen Ebbett, the President of Protect Your Bubble pet insurance company.