New Charges for Insurance Claims

I've just received a letter from our vets informing us that in future they will make a charge in order to process insurance claims. It is £5 for every two forms they complete and send off per year.

Is this usual?

I have to make numerous claims in a year because of the meds for the epilepsy and anything else that crops up, so it's now a case of saving all the claims and only submitting every six months if I don't want to be charged more than £5 a year. Six months worth of vet charges is a lot of money in our case.

Good grief. That could soon add up!
I've not come across this (yet!!). I'll be in the same boat as you as Gels is on soloxine and I'm there every other month for a repeat prescription. We've been claiming for years for this.
Honestly, most vets add plenty on to any meds they sell to start with.
Bad form this.

But wont all your yearly claims be part of the same ongoing claim? in which case is not a new claim, would have thought the administration charge would be for new claims??

In answer to your question I think it is down to individual vets.. some will some wont, but I have heard of it before

I know at my vets, large practice, they have one employee who deals with only claims, so in that I guess , they have to pay a wage

Jackbox - it is on the number of claim forms you submit.

You can use one claim form to claim for a couple of different conditions, e.g. epilepsy and conjunctivitis but to avoid having to keep paying more than £5, you have to wait to claim back all the money you've spent over the preceeding 6 months on each ailment. So you'd list all the treatments for one condition, say from 1 January to 30 June but you can't claim for it as you pay out now, unless you want to pay extra in claim form fees.

I'm not organised enough to remember to do it and we will be out of pocket for months too, until we can claim it back.

If the vet claims directly to the insurers, they are charging £25!!!

Ours is a large surgery too and they've just had a new surgery built amidst much fanfare ... money had to come from somwhere I suppose.

Gellygoo, I sincerely hope you don't find yourself in this position too.

Luckystar, sorry to hear of this. I am not keen on vet charges in general......this sounds unfair to me, a person has no choice but to get the vet to sign and send off claim forms. Sounds like they have people over a barrel.

As Jackbox says, it is down to individual vets I think. Ours don't charge (yet) but I have heard before that other vets do.

It's difficult because you have no choice but then I wonder how many claims forms some practices get per week and then someone has to sit there and fill them out.

Not to mention , when the claim is processed by the insurer.. they will then get back to the vets surgery, ask for medical history, the vet then has to look up records, divulging all information the insurer require...


A lot of work for the practice, and multiple this by god knows how many in a week, you can start to see why some surgeries charge an administration fee.

I just wanted to bring this back in case any one has experienced anything like this with their vet. Or is it just us?

As I predicted, I forgot to put in my huge claim after 6 months and am out of pocket. I have a letter to go with my mega-huge claim, informing the vet how angry I am and explaining how we have been penalised for having a dog that needs monthly medication. I have also mentioned in the letter that some people might stop medicating or get drugs from the internet when faced with this added charge. After all, it's not as though insurance isn't expensive enough, is it?

I am thinking of finding a new vet too - it's just that this lot know Loki and his epilepsy problems and apart from this claim charge, I've been okay with them.

Sorry about to hear about that! My vet also charges for every prescription - £5.90 per item so it all adds up. I think you should look around for a new vet.

Change your vet and tell them why!

rune