If your vet offers Pet Wellness Plans, you may be uncertain how they can benefit you and your pet. Below, our Novato vets present four benefits to consider when deciding whether a Pet Wellness Plan is right for you.
Why should I sign my pet up for a Pet Wellness Plan?
Your vet offers wellness plans to provide you with cost savings on a range of routine services that help maintain your pet's health throughout the year. These plans typically renew annually (unless canceled), ensuring uninterrupted pet coverage from one year to the next.
It's important to closely examine the services included in your vet's Pet Wellness Plans, as these plans can vary significantly between hospitals.
Some veterinary hospitals offer plans that encompass twice-yearly checkups, fecal exams, a variety of core and lifestyle vaccines, 12 months of parasite protection, and extras like nail trims.
Others provide a more scaled-down selection of services, covering essential preventive care for all pets, such as one annual exam with core vaccines and parasite protection.
Benefits of Pet Wellness Plans
The selection of services that your vet offers will generally dictate the price of coverage. But whether your vet's plans include lots of services or just the basics, all Pet Wellness Plans are designed to help save you money and offer a number of benefits.
They Make Budgeting for Your Pet's Annual Preventive Care Easier
Wellness Plans calculate the overall cost of your pet's annual preventive care and divide that amount into 12 easy-to-manage payments, making budgeting easier.
Discounts on Other Services & Products From Your Veterinary Hospital
Pet Wellness Plans can save you money in two significant ways. When you bundle your pet's annual preventive services into a Pet Wellness Plan, most vets discount the annual cost, helping you save money.
This means you pay less for those services simply by making monthly payments for your pet's plan.
However, Pet Wellness Plans offer a second way to save you money. Many vets also provide Wellness Plan holders with a 10% discount on other services offered by their hospital. While some restrictions apply, this additional discount can result in substantial cost savings.
Ensuring Your Pet's Preventive Care Isn't Delayed
Our vets believe that prevention is the key to helping your pet live a long and healthy life. However, many pet parents find themselves putting off their pet's parasite prevention and vaccines due to concerns about cost. Wellness Plans make paying for your pet's preventive care more affordable, which means no more delays! That's great news for both you and your pet.
Year-round protection against common conditions and parasites will help to preserve your pet's long-term health and prevent the need to pay for costly treatments further down the road.
Promoting Great Healthcare Habits
The fact is that if you are paying for a service, you are far more likely to use it, and that's great news for your pet! Wellness Plans help to ensure that pet parents make time for essential pet wellness that might otherwise be neglected, such as annual checkups and fecal exams for their pets.
Routine exams allow your vet to monitor your pet's overall health and check your pet for early signs of developing disease. These appointments also allow you to speak to your vet about any concerns you might have about your pet's health, behavior, nutrition...or anything else. You are allowing your vet to provide you with informative advice on how to help your pet achieve optimal health.
Fecal exams enable your vet to examine your pet's stool for signs of internal parasites that could negatively affect your pet's health without your knowledge. Furthermore, because some internal parasites can be transmitted to humans, your pet's fecal exam contributes to protecting your health as well.
Difference Between Pet Wellness Plans & Pet Insurance
Pet insurance can also help pet parents pay for their animal's veterinary care, but it's important to note that pet insurance and Wellness Plans are very different.
As described above, Pet Wellness Plans are designed to make annual preventive care more affordable for pet parents. While many plans include an extra yearly examination to be used if your pet is injured or unwell, Pet Wellness Plans are not designed to cover the cost of veterinary care related to accidents or serious illness. That's where pet insurance comes in.
Pet insurance helps to cover the cost of emergency veterinary care and treatment for long-term illnesses such as cancer or diabetes. Pet insurance gives pet owners financial help to pay for treatments for conditions and accidents that are covered by their specific policy.
Is a Wellness Plan right for your pet?
If your vet's office offers Wellness Plans, it's a good idea to ask your vet whether your pet could benefit from coverage. Your veterinarian knows your animal and can help you weigh the benefits of coverage to decide whether a Wellness Plan is a good idea.