Vetting local veterinarians — and avoiding excess pet costs
Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook rated area vets to help pet owners avoid putting up with unnecessary inconvenience, unpleasantness, and cost to get that care.
![Dog Park at Bok is crowded as breeds of all kinds enjoy the weather on the corner of Ninth and Dudley Streets.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/v2/HJWP2GE24RBFVBHLNLOMXXG24Y.jpg?auth=bd6b6df274f980a331d30a4525d85ab3f56ea9ae321d252267b0081fe180d58b&width=760&height=507&smart=true)
We love our pets. And as with any member of the family, we want to be sure they get good health care. Given all the other sacrifices we make for the critters, however, we would like to avoid putting up with unnecessary inconvenience, unpleasantness, and cost to get that care.
Here’s how to find a pick-of-the-litter vet practice.
You can be reasonably confident that every veterinarian is intelligent and well-trained. In addition to completing four years of college and four years of veterinary school, almost all have undergone several additional years of practical training in a clinical setting.
For many years, it has been more difficult to obtain admission to veterinary schools than to medical schools, and to qualify to practice, graduates must pass an exam that’s as difficult as the one for physicians.
Most of the feedback Delaware Valley Consumers’ Checkbook collected from local consumers was quite favorable. Apparently, the decision to become a vet usually goes hand-in-hand with a good attitude.
But not every vet has all the qualities you want. Some practices received low scores on many survey questions.
To help you find a veterinarian who provides quality care at a fair price, Checkbook is offering free access to its ratings of area veterinarians to Inquirer readers until Nov. 5.
While you can’t assess all aspects of a veterinarian’s technical skills and expertise, you can judge many factors central to good medical care: Can you arrange to quickly get an appointment? Does the vet listen to you and communicate well? Spend enough time with you? Give useful advice on preventing diseases, warning signs, and treatments you can administer on your own? Seem competent and thorough?
Veterinary hospitals can become accredited by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) by meeting certain minimum standards including maintaining adequate medical records and providing complete diagnostic, pharmacy, anesthetic, surgical, nursing, dental, and emergency service facilities.
Interestingly, among the veterinary practices evaluated by Checkbook, AAHA accreditation seems to have little relationship to service quality.
Although you want the best possible care for your pet, you don’t want to overspend. The most common complaints Checkbook received from vet customers concern excessive and unexpectedly high bills.
Many commented that vets not only failed to consider and discuss lower cost treatment alternatives, but also pushed costly treatments of little value to the pet and owner.
To compare vets for price, Checkbook’s undercover shoppers called Delaware Valley-area practices to collect their prices for six different procedures and found big cost differences.
For example, to spay a 7-month-old, 25-pound dog, prices ranged from $220 to $950. And to clean the teeth of a 7-year-old, 65-pound dog, fees ranged from $322 to $1,480.
Fortunately, many of the lowest-priced vets received very high ratings from their surveyed customers, so you can save money without sacrificing quality.
Weighing the benefits (and costs) of pet insurance
Because veterinary treatment can be expensive, many consumers buy health insurance for their pets. But Checkbook analyzed these policies and found that most plans ended up costing more in premiums than they paid out over a pet’s lifetime.
None of the 12 plans Checkbook analyzed was a good deal if sample pets had a low or moderate level of health problems (as is the case with most pets). That’s mostly because pet insurance is expensive.
Over their pets’ lifetimes, most families will spend thousands of dollars more for premiums, co-pays, and other out-of-pocket costs with insurance, compared to paying all vet costs on their own.
While plans seem affordable when pets are young, four or five years later, premiums begin to rise. Eventually, some pet insurance plans will charge more than $3,000 per year to cover a 12-year-old mixed-breed dog, and even more for many pure breeds.
Cats cost less to insure, but Checkbook also found insurance to be a bad deal for most cat owners.
If you still want pet insurance, shop carefully. Understand what’s not covered. In addition to skyrocketing premiums, a leading complaint to regulators is claims rejected for conditions or treatments the policy does not cover.
No policy covers preexisting conditions, and some conditions that are covered may be considered preexisting if they develop up to a year after you enroll.
Don’t be swayed by the five-figure medical bills and huge insurance payouts claimed by companies. Those examples don’t include the high cost of premiums in their calculations. Find out how premiums will increase as your pet ages.
To avoid claim rejection for a preexisting condition, insure pets when they’re young. If your pet is ill or injured, know that the diagnostic exam is often not covered by many plans, even though the treatment itself is covered.
Also don’t bother with add-ons for wellness, preventive, and elective care. Checkbook found that these options are rarely worth the expense. To minimize out-of-pocket costs for coverage, consider accident-only policies, which cover injuries but not illness and can be considerably less expensive.
You must pay premiums every month, but you may or may not have to pay deductibles and co-pays, depending on your pet’s health. It may pay to cut your premium costs by increasing your deductible, reducing the percent reimbursed, and choosing an annual limit of $5,000 or $10,000 instead of unlimited.
Delaware Valley Consumers’ Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help consumers get the best service and lowest prices. We are supported by consumers and take no money from the service providers we evaluate.