A pet insurance plan generally works by reimbursing you, as a pet owner, for certain veterinary care and pet expenses after you’ve taken your pet to see a vet and submitted a claim.1 Let’s take a closer look at what it is, how it works, and how you can get coverage for your furry family member.
What Is Pet Insurance?
Pet insurance is a policy pet owners buy that helps cover their pet’s health care expenses through reimbursements for covered costs.1 Depending on the provider, there may be exclusions to certain policies or coverage options, as well as specific health conditions.
Types of pet insurance plans
There are different types of plans that can be found across the pet insurance market. Plans like:
- Comprehensive (accident and illness): These plans offer coverage for unexpected accidents and illnesses — it’s generally the broadest coverage you can get. This is the type of plan MetLife Pet offers.
- Accident-only: These plans offer coverage for unexpected accidents, but won’t cover illnesses. MetLife Pet currently doesn’t offer this type of plan.
- Wellness: These plans are usually added on to an insurance policy and offer coverage for routine or wellness expenses. MetLife Pet offers optional Preventive Care you can add to your plan.
The type of plan you have impacts how your pet insurance will reimburse you for vet bills. For example, an accident-only plan won’t work for vet bills related to something like cancer or diabetes.
How Does Pet Insurance Work?
When your pet is unwell, stressing over the cost of treatment is likely the last thing you want to do. That’s why MetLife Pet makes our pet insurance easy to use. Let’s take a quick look at how to use pet insurance before we dig into a more detailed explanation of how it works.
1. Take your pet to the vet
Whenever your pet is sick or injured and needs an exam, take them to a licensed vet, specialist, or emergency clinic for necessary care. With MetLife Pet Insurance, you can see any licensed vet in the country.
When paying the bill at the vet, ask for an itemized invoice, SOAP notes, and any other necessary medical records from your visit — these help us process your claim.
2. Submit a claim
To make getting reimbursements quick and easy, you can file a claim in the MyPets online portal or the MetLife Pet app. Simply log in, start a claim, and submit the required documents.
Once you’ve submitted your claim, we’ll reach out to you or your vet if we need more information. You can even track your claim in the app. We’ll determine which expenses are covered by your policy so you can get reimbursed for them.1
3. Get reimbursed
After we’ve processed your claim — usually within 5 days2 if we have everything we need — you’ll be able to see which expenses, if any, are going to be reimbursed.1 Payment will be sent to you using whichever method you prefer, including multiple direct deposit options or a paper check in the mail.
How Do You Get Pet Insurance?
After doing your research and comparing pet insurance providers and plans, you can typically get a quote online from a provider’s website to see what your coverage and rates might be. You’ll need to provide some basic information about your pet’s age, breed, and gender, along with where you live and your contact information.
Once you’ve chosen a provider, you can usually continue the enrollment process through your quote — whether that’s from the quote page or a follow-up link you might have been sent in an email. If you haven’t already gotten a quote, complete that process on the provider’s website and continue to enroll from there.
Sometimes you can get pet insurance through your employer. If you take advantage of this voluntary benefit, make sure you follow the enrollment process outlined by your employer.
Policy Details That Affect How Pet Insurance Works
Certain details of your pet’s insurance policy affect how the coverage will work when you use it. Let’s take a look.
Insurance premiums and how they work
An insurance premium — or rate — is the money you pay for your pet insurance policy to remain active. Premiums can be paid monthly or annually.
The cost of a pet insurance policy depends on the deductible, reimbursement rate, and annual limits you choose.1,3,4 It can also be influenced by your pet’s breed, age, sex, and your location. MetLife Pet Insurance provides the option of customizing your policy, which enables you to better meet your pet’s particular needs.
How pet insurance deductibles work
A pet insurance deductible is the amount of money you have to pay toward eligible vet bills before you can start getting reimbursed.1,3 For example, if you have a $3,000 vet bill and a policy with a $500 deductible, $500 will be subtracted from the total to meet your deductible, then you can get reimbursed for covered expenses — at your reimbursement rate — on the rest of the bill.5
Some providers have different kinds of deductibles, with the two main types being annual deductibles or per-incident deductibles. MetLife Pet offers a wide range of annual deductible options to fit your budget and your pet’s unique needs.3
Your pet deserves great care. Get it with the help of MetLife Pet.
Reimbursement rates and how they work
Reimbursement rates are the amount of money, as a percentage, your policy will pay out for covered pet medical expenses. With MetLife Pet, you can get reimbursed up to 90% of the cost of covered expenses.1
Let’s use the previous example with a vet bill totaling $3,000. After the $500 annual deductible is met, you’re left with $2,500. A policy with an 80% reimbursement rate could reimburse you for $2,000 of the remaining $2,500 vet bill, assuming all expenses are covered.5
How pet insurance annual limits work
Most pet insurance policies have annual reimbursement limits that put caps on how much you can be reimbursed for eligible expenses.
Annual limits are the maximum dollar amount you can be reimbursed for all covered expenses during a 12-month policy period. Per-incident limits put a cap on how much you can be reimbursed for each separate incident during a policy period. Once you’ve hit your applicable reimbursement limit, you’ll be responsible for the full cost of your vet bills until a new policy period begins and those limits reset.
MetLife Pet has no per-incident limits and offers flexible annual limits you can choose from.4
How soon you can use your pet insurance
Before you can start using your pet insurance, there’s typically a waiting period6 between enrollment and when coverage begins. These waiting periods can vary between providers. MetLife Pet offers a 0-day waiting period for accidents and optional Preventive Care benefits, and a 14-day waiting period for illnesses.
What Does Pet Insurance Cover?
In addition to plan details like deductibles and waiting periods, what a plan covers also affects how pet insurance works when submitting a claim for reimbursement.1 With MetLife Pet Insurance, some things that can typically be covered include:
- Vet visits for accidents and illnesses
- Vet-prescribed medication
- Surgeries, hospitalization, and emergency care
- Diagnostic testing (including blood tests, X-rays, and more)
- Alternative therapies
MetLife Pet also offers an optional Preventive Care plan that can help you cover costs related to proactive things, including vaccinations, parasite prevention, and dental cleaning, up to your selected benefit limit.
What doesn’t pet insurance cover?
Pet insurance is meant to help you cover unexpected expenses. This means pre-existing conditions are typically not covered by pet insurance. MetLife Pet, however, may be able to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions when you switch from another provider to a MetLife Pet policy through your employer without a gap in coverage.7
Other common exclusions that could apply to a MetLife Pet policy include costs related to breeding, elective or cosmetic surgeries, obedience training, grooming, and non-prescription food.
Get MetLife Pet Insurance Today for Coverage Tomorrow
Pet insurance can be a great way to help you keep your pets healthy and make vet care more financially accessible. MetLife Pet plans are designed to be customizable, with a broad range of coverage for many of your pet’s medical needs. Plus, we offer various discounts on premiums and a healthy pet incentive that can help you save on your deductible.8,9
Get pet insurance that works just as fast as the unexpected happens. Enroll today, starting with a free quote, and have coverage for accidents tomorrow.
