Complaint Review: PetPlan Pet Insurance

From other reviews here at this site and elsewhere, it seems this insurance company fraudulently collects premiums with no intention of ever paying claims as a matter of policy. If you are caught in a similar predicament i suggest you file a report here, then either use the yellow pages to find a good insurance adjuster (try looking under adjuster), or a lawyer. With pets living longer, and premiums that can be $500 or more per year, damages add up.

For many years this company has been telling prospective customers their cats and dogs need not get an animal  physical for coverage, or to be covered if they get sick later. You are told there is a 2 week, or 30 day waiting period during which there is no health coverage. It sounds fair, you think you are covered after that, and year after year, or month after month, you fork over huge premium payments. With good reason you feel safe and think your pet is covered! It is NOT! It turns out these thieves will try to worm out of paying every way they can think of.

My tale begins 4 years ago at which time I was insuring my house cat on their Gold plan. I was specifically told there was no cat physical required at sign up; not then or ever, for coverage. This meant a great deal, because I am disabled and trying to support a whole family on a bit over $700 per month Social Security. My cat lives a safe, pampered indoor life, and we can tell darn well if he is ok or not. We can not afford the $200 premium, which goes up every year, let alone another $100 vet bill for nothing. We took the policy, and renewed every year, with peace of mind the cat had health insurance.

4 years later, I still had never filed a single claim, and paid on time as usual. This 4th year my kids said they would treat my cat to a dental cleaning and check up, and paid the bill themselves for over $250. PetPlan paid nothing, and since dental, and check ups, are not in the policy, we did not claim anything, nor do we feel it is any of PetPlan's business! A couple months later my cat suffered an acute emergency hemotoma of the right ear. We rushed him to a different open vet at sunrise. That vet saved his life, and I was forced to go to my kids again to pay the over $800 bill (I am told that other doctors would charge up to $2500 for the same operation). PetPlan should be so grateful. Instead well over a month later I remain uncompensated!

PetPlan took my claim by fax, and we submitted a detailed line item bill as their customer service requested. In my many years of pet ownership of other pets, other times, other companies, other places; this was always enough! 2 weeks later i got an email stating their were no medical records submitted. I called PetPlan, and they had me sign another form for medical records. Another 2 weeks go by, still no check. Also there was no sign there had been any trouble with the claim, no letters, phone calls, or any further emails from PetPlan. When i called them (as upposed to them calling me), they said there were no medical records. They also said there may have been pre existing causes. In fact without medical records they would not pay! If I had not called they would have simply let the claim expire!

My thinking was since there were no previous problems there were no medical records ever generated on the hemotoma. PetPlan could plainly see by their own records there had never been a previous problem if they had wanted to! They had 4 years of payments in, and nothing paid out for anything! Besides, the hemotoma was acute, did not develop slowly, nor was it a relapse of a prevoius hemotoma, of which there would have been records in their files!

Surprise! Ha! Ha! You dirty no good PetPlan! Surprise! Just by dumb luck my poor cat had had that supposedly unrequired "wellness visit" this year, plus a dental cleaning to boot, at the other vet! Surprise! You won't be able to cheat my family that easily!

To date PetPlan has still dodged paying my family a dime, but if they do not soon I intend to see the best adjuster i can find and sue them! I may see the adjuster even if they do pay now. The way I see it, they charge you for a policy that required a large dollar wellness visit every year to validate, and without that validation there never had been coverage since 4 years ago, at day 1 with the company. As if I haven't suffered enough with the sick cat, I find it so utterly horrid this company has managed to further hurt and upset me. I personally have a bad heart, and cannot take the upset from them. Plus now i find they do this to other people too!