[BonBon]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

I have PetPlan for Pfeiffer, and filed my first claim a few weeks ago. After about 1 week, I received a check for about $700.

Now, as I understand it - you should get an exam (or, have one on file) before obtaining insurance (or, as soon as you get it). Also, there are breed-specific items (for PetPlan) that must be noted on the exam. For example, the exam for yorkies must say something to the effect of "luxating patella not present" -- in fact, when I called PetPlan after I first was signed up, PetPlan told me the *exact* verbiage that needed to be on Pfeiffer's exam regarding her knees - so I passed that on to her vet.

What's concerning to me, is that the only reason I knew that about the exam - is that I called PetPlan as I signing up and asked "what exactly do I need to do to get Pfeiffer started etc" -- and that's when they told me about the requirements of her 1st exam. Otherwise, I'd never have know that yorkies must have their knees cleared.

I'm happy w/ PetPlan, so far. The one thing I'm not happy about is that it wasn't clear to me (at all) that seeing a 'specialist' changes the co-pay completely. I signed up for a 0% copay - and that's what I expected. I may have not read thoroughly enough, but I don't recall coming across that detail when I was enrolling.

Ann, what you've said here really concerns me. When I called Petplan several days ago, I specifically asked about knees and luxating patella's and ensuring the coverage for them on my yorkies. I asked several questions relating to knees and never once did the man tell me what you were told. Not one time did he say anything special or additional was needed from my vet.

I chose to leave Chelsea with Embrace because of her knees, which I knew would be considered a pre-existing condition if I moved her to Petplan. I know that LP can develop at any time, so I wanted to make certain all my others would be covered if they ever had problems. I was not comfortable with the answer I got from the Petplan rep but I figured that I just wasn't understanding what he was trying to say.

Petplan was very careful in asking me for specific dates of my pups last exams or vet visits. I'm surprised the OP was asked about this as well. They don't sound very consistent in the questions they ask enrollees.

I just want to say a little about how Embrace handles this, in case anyone is interested. They also have a 14 day waiting period for everything except orthopedic issues - that has a 6 month waiting period. However, they encourage you to have an orthopedic exam done and they will waive the 6 month ortho waiting period. This applies to ALL breeds, it is not breed specific.

I've done more research on all this since yesterday, and I feel confident that for my needs I've made the right decision in staying with Embrace. I still believe Petplan is a good company, but I'm more comfortable elsewhere.