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Post by meandmine on Mar 31, 2020 10:11:10 GMT
I know it is a case of every owner making their own decision regarding whether to take out pet insurance ( and I have no wish to start a debate either way) but thought I'd share our recent experience.
As some of you will remember our older dog had a patch of awful ill health earlier this year. Following lots of treatment by our local vet she was referred to a specialist animal hospital where she had an overnight stay, underwent scans, biopsies and etc under a general anaesthetic. All in all her treatment cost over four thousand pounds. We have today received an e mail from the insurance company who have declined the claim as they say it is related to a pre existing condition. We,as layman, understood it to be a completely different condition which is the reason we proceeded with the various procedures. We would not have put her through all the tests if we had thought for one moment her condition was caused by the previously diagnosed colitis.
We are contacting the specialist vet at some point ( obviously difficult at present) but presume we will have no option to pay the full bill ourselves.
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Post by lotsofcats on Mar 31, 2020 11:23:21 GMT
That is awful news for you meandmine. The insurance companies will do anything to get out of paying. Like you say, you will be contacting the specialist vet - ask him if he can help and contradict the insurance company in their response to your claim. Good luck, I really hope your vet can help.
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Post by meandmine on Mar 31, 2020 18:59:03 GMT
Having calmed down a bit and re read the email refusing our insurance claim I'd just like to add some more information.
We changed to this company in 2018 because they accept pre existing conditions IF " there have been no claims, treatment or advice given over the condition in the previous 24 months". As our dog had been well for this period we thought we'd be OK but apparently the three bags of food ( RC sensitivity control - prescribed for colitis) ordered via the vet in 2017 year contravenes this and that is why the Insurance Company will not pay up.
So my advice would be to anyone considering taking out or changing insurance cover would be check, double check and check again all the small print.
And I STILL do not accept that her new condition is caused by the colitis.
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Post by scallywag on Mar 31, 2020 19:40:21 GMT
Sorry to hear youre going thru all this , whos to say you hadnt bought that for a friend who couldn’t source the food , this is why Ive never taken out insurance BUT I did put away a sum of money every week ( same amount ) and it accumulated over the years , twas there when needed when previous and present dogs BOTH had cruciate operations on both legs . Sorry waffled on here
Good luck with your claim x
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Post by meandmine on May 16, 2020 6:30:20 GMT
We contacted the Insurance company with more information and our vet has written to them also but we are still waiting for an answer. We have tried to explain that as ' laymen' we thought the existing colitis was a separate and irrelevant condition. As the company will not pay for specialist food anyway we have asked what part of the phrase " advice, treatment or medication " the supplying of specialist food is included in.Not holding out a great deal of hope you never know.
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Post by lotsofcats on May 18, 2020 12:55:47 GMT
Ask your vet for help meandmine and if they agree with you they could phone the insurance company on your behalf. Good Luck! I made a claim for one of my cats years ago as he had a problem with his jaw and it caused a problem where he had to have lots of teeth removed. The insurance company refused to pay out as they said insurance never covers for teeth being extracted. My vet phoned them and told them the problem was caused by my cat's jaw and I received the payment.
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Post by meandmine on May 18, 2020 15:03:59 GMT
Our vet has already been in contact with the Insurance company. The insurance people say that looking at little dogs history they can see she was treated for diarrhoea in 2017 and this also invalidates our claim that she was colitis free in the two years prior to our taking out the new policy. Our vet has it on record that they believe the diarrhoea was caused by a bad reaction to flea treatment and an 'adverse reaction ' form was completed and sent to the manufacturer at the time. I don't think we have a chance of winning the argument as they have an answer for everything but it is SO frustrating 😡
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Post by tonib on May 18, 2020 23:22:45 GMT
I hope you & your vet are going to push the insurance company further meandmine & wish you good luck.
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Post by meandmine on May 19, 2020 7:37:06 GMT
We received a long email from the insurance company late yesterday. Apparently they will pay for a specialist diet ( missed that in the small print ☹️) and therefore, as the specialist vet says the new condition is related to her colitis, have again dismissed our claim. Any further information has to come from the specialist which is very difficult at the moment but we'll be emailing them later.
The daft thing is we could not get a definitive diagnosis without scans, biopsies and etc but having done all that we are now told it is related to colitis for which she went through the same procedures years ago. We were in a no win situation apparently ( although as most of you would agree - we'd have done almost anything to alleviate her pain).
What we find difficult to understand about the two conditions being related is that treatment for colitis had no effect but treatment for IBD was successful almost immediately. 🥴
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Post by lotsofcats on May 19, 2020 8:24:57 GMT
That is some help that the insurance company will pay for a specialist diet. It must be so frustrating for you but don't give up without a fight, the insurance company are expecting you to accept what they say. Awful thing is now you can't change your insurance company to another one and you have to put up with them - then again all insurance companies are the same and will do anything to get out of paying. I wish you good luck.
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Post by meandmine on May 19, 2020 8:54:37 GMT
Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. As the insurance company would pay for the diet as part of treatment they regard it that she has been having on going vet care for her condition and thereby invalidates our claim that she was colitis free at the time of taking out the policy. We thought that as she had no actual bouts of the colitis she qualified under their terms. ( And they won't pay for it now anyway as it is part of her ongoing / pre existing illness ).
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Post by scallywag on May 19, 2020 8:59:14 GMT
Sorry for question you may have already said but too lazy to go read everything all over , is your vet supplying you specialist food ?
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Post by meandmine on May 19, 2020 9:16:00 GMT
Scallywag - we can buy the food from various on line pet sites but if we have let ourselves run short and don't have time to order it we buy it through the vet as they have next day delivery.
PS It has just occured to me that those three bags of food plus one set of anti biotics ( when she had diarrhoea as a result of the flea treatment) were VERY expensive as without them our £4,000 insurance claim would have been paid .
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Post by caz2golden on Jun 1, 2020 9:49:05 GMT
Just wanted to say good luck. If you feel insurance company is in wrong you could always approach the ombudsman!
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Post by meandmine on Jun 1, 2020 13:49:59 GMT
Thank you caz2golden.
We've contacted the animal hospital she was treated at and they have forwarded our email to the specialist vet concerned.
We now know that she would not be entitled to any claims we may have tried to make about problems regarding her colitis ( because of the food bought during the "qualifying period" which they regard as treatment)but are trying to argue that without the scans, biopsies etc we could not possibly know the cause of her new condition. A definitive diagnosis could not be made without her undergoing these procedures so we had no way of knowing that the new problem was related to the old one.....if that makes sense.
As I've said before we don't think we have any real chance of them paying out now but it is so frustrating. We cannot see how we should have known that the two conditions were related especially as she was first treated for colitis but continued to worsen.
Whatever happens we are just relieved and pleased that the second lot of treatment has worked and she is back to being the happy little dog we know and love .
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