Pet Insurance and Insurance Claims
Protecting your pets and understanding the claims process.
Pet Insurance
We encourage clients to insure their pets wherever possible, as you never know when an accident or illness could pop up out of nowhere. Although we are always happy to discuss individual circumstances, insurance offers a safety net to you and your pets. We appreciate insurance policies can be a minefield, but the main points to consider are:
- How much is the cover for and is the cover per condition or per year?
- Is ongoing medication covered with a long-term illness diagnosis and do the benefits renew every year — this is called a Lifetime Policy.
- How much is the excess and is there an additional copayment added as a percentage of the bill?
- Do they do direct claims?
- What exactly is covered? Some policies only cover accident/injury.
Making a Claim
If you are insured and you would like to make a claim, we are more than happy to process this for you. We need your policy number and claim form to start the process, so if you can bring these before or on the day of the procedure it would be very helpful.
The claim form will have a section for the policy holder to complete, to give basic contact details and a signature. Once you have done this, we can complete the rest of the claim form. Some policies do not require paper forms and claims can be submitted directly via an online portal.
Currently Cathy, one of our receptionists, deals with all our insurance claims and can advise you how to proceed.
Claiming Options
Routine & Continuation Claims
You pay the veterinary fees at the time of treatment and then the insurance company reimburses you.
If your pet is having repeat visits or on-going medication this then becomes a continuation claim, so only one excess is payable.
Direct Claims
We claim the fees directly from the insurance company for any amount above the excess. This must be prearranged prior to treatment and agreed by a director.
Not all insurance companies offer direct claims — those that do sometimes also offer pre-authorization for non-urgent treatments, where the insurance company agrees to pay the fee after receiving an estimate.
The excess (the amount the insurance company won’t pay) must be paid prior to the direct claim being processed.
Please note: The account holder remains liable for any outstanding balance which is not covered by the insurance policy.
Important Information
Please be aware unless you give permission to the insurance company verbally or in writing we are not able to contact them directly on your behalf.
However, our insurance team will process and submit the claim forms and separate out all relevant clinical history from your files to ensure you can claim back all related fees.
This does take considerable time, which is why there is an administration fee of £17.50 per condition per year, applicable to any new claims going forwards from March 2026.
Continuation claims and pets on the Gold Pet Health Plan will not incur a fee.