Vets Now admin fee to process insurance-anyone pushed back?

[trails]

Cat had an emergency vet trip to out of hours Vets Now hospital, £325 fee...not an issue with the bill, but then being asked for a further £25 to cover admin costs to respond to my pet insurance company.

Feels like coercion, am I doing a Victor Meldrew, or am I right to push back?

[Red9zero]

Our vets have been doing that for as long as I can remember.

[The Rotrex Kid]

You can just claim yourself?

[spitfire-ian]

One of ours had to go to a Vets Now out of hours practice this week and they definitely said to me there would be an admin fee to deal with the insurance company.

It mentions it in the FAQs on their website https://www.vets-now.com/client-care/faqs/financia...

[Jakg]

The Rotrex Kid said:

You can just claim yourself?

It's not a fee for doing the insurance claim for you, it's a fee for producing the additional documents required from the vet by the insurance company.

It sounds "sharp" but really you should be asking why the pet insurance company require the vet to jump through hoops but then refuse to pay for those as part of the claim...

EDIT - or at least my pet insurance company explicitly excluded admin fees from claims, which effectively just bumped up the excess. I've self-insured now.

[trails]

For clarity, I raised the claim myself with my insurer and then got a message a day later from them saying Vets Now would not process the claim.

When I called Vets Now they told me there was a £25 admin fee I was required to pay before they would respond to my insurer, they also told me I should have been told about the fee during our visit to the Vets Now vet.

The vet I have been using for almost 30 years has never charged for this service, they often volunteer to raise the claim themselves. Maybe I have been spoilt, but this feels like a disingenuous charge.

[The Rotrex Kid]

Jakg said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

You can just claim yourself?

It's not a fee for doing the insurance claim for you, it's a fee for producing the additional documents required from the vet by the insurance company.

It sounds "sharp" but really you should be asking why the pet insurance company require the vet to jump through hoops but then refuse to pay for those as part of the claim...

EDIT - or at least my pet insurance company explicitly excluded admin fees from claims, which effectively just bumped up the excess. I've self-insured now.

Oh, I get it, seems bizarre then! It's akin to them charging you a £25 admin fee to raise an invoice to you!

[trails]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Oh, I get it, seems bizarre then! It's akin to them charging you a £25 admin fee to raise an invoice to you!

Yup, all they have to do is confirm the treatment given and the cost of the treatment.

I have now spoken to customer services and they have waived the fee, in this instance...this charge has only been in place 10 months, so I am still going to refer them to the insurance ombudsman.

[The Rotrex Kid]

My vet did recently charge me a fee (£20) to process a claim, but they did the whole lot, I didn't do anything and just paid the outstanding balance after the insurance had paid their bit.

Good work on getting it waived.

[HRL]

The Rotrex Kid said:

My vet did recently charge me a fee (£20) to process a claim, but they did the whole lot, I didn't do anything and just paid the outstanding balance after the insurance had paid their bit.

Good work on getting it waived.

Our vet is the same. £20 admin fee for dealing with the insurance for us. I don’t begrudge it TBH.

[otolith]

My vet has recently started charging an admin fee, and stopped doing direct claims. They waive it if you join their pet health club, and I think with the regular meds and monitoring my cats have it's probably cost effective.

[trails]

HRL said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

My vet did recently charge me a fee (£20) to process a claim, but they did the whole lot, I didn't do anything and just paid the outstanding balance after the insurance had paid their bit.

Good work on getting it waived.

Our vet is the same. £20 admin fee for dealing with the insurance for us. I don’t begrudge it TBH.

I would have no issue with my own vet charging an agreed up front cost, particularly if they were managing the whole claim...that wasn't the case here though.