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The short answer: yes! Because Healthy Paws pet insurance works by reimbursement, meaning the pet parent pays their invoice up front and then submits it to the pet insurance company for reimbursement, pet parents can use any licensed vet with their pet insurance plan.
Pet insurance can be very helpful when a pet becomes sick or injured, and the pet parent is faced with potentially high costs of veterinary care. Insurance coverage can help pet parents feel peace of mind and liberates them to say yes to life-saving treatments with less worry about how much it will cost.
On the other hand, without insurance, pet parents could hesitate to get their pet the care they need if it were cost-prohibitive. According to a recent Canine Journal survey, 55% of pet parents would consider unnecessary euthanasia instead of paying $2,500 or more for vet care, according to the survey. 1
Before purchasing a pet insurance policy, pet parents should do their due diligence to understand what is covered and excluded and how it works. One of the most common questions asked about pet insurance is whether all veterinarians accept it.
Pet insurance is different from human health insurance.
Generally speaking, there are many misconceptions about pet insurance. Because doctors typically only accept certain insurance carriers, people wonder whether it works the same way for veterinarians and pet insurance. Though both human health insurance and pet insurance are meant to help with the costs of medical care, they operate quite differently.
While human health insurance falls under its own category of “health insurance,” pet insurance is classified and regulated as Property and Casualty insurance. With your human medical insurance, you may find yourself searching through a list of in-network doctors to find a provider that will be covered by your insurance company. But because pet insurance is a different type of insurance, it works differently in that there are no in- or out-of-network veterinarians.
Can I use any vet with a Healthy Paws pet insurance plan?
Yes, you can use any licensed veterinarian in the United States or while traveling in Canada with your Healthy Paws plan, including emergency clinics and veterinary specialists. The Healthy Paws pet insurance plan provides coverage by reimbursing the pet parent for covered expenses as a result of new accidents and illnesses, except for pre-existing conditions or as otherwise excluded under your policy. Reimbursements are based on your actual veterinary bills. Claims representatives determine the total of the covered treatments and multiply that by your reimbursement rate, then subtract your remaining annual deductible.
This helps to keep things simple, so in the case of an emergency, you can focus on getting your pet the care they need without worrying about whether or not the vet hospital you choose to visit is in-network.
Now that you are equipped with the knowledge that you can take your pet to any veterinarian, it’s a good idea to start a pet insurance policy now, before any new health conditions or injuries arise, to ensure that if something were to happen down the road it would be eligible for coverage.
1Canine Journal, 2024
