Paying Animal Trust
At Animal Trust we want to focus our time on caring for animals and not counting cash. Due to this commitment, we are a cashless business and ask that clients pay for any treatment/medication by debit or credit card as we cannot accept cash.
All surgical procedures carried out at Animal Trust should be paid for at the time of the animal being admitted and not at the point of discharge. Payment can be made at the front desk to a member of our client service team at all Animal Trust surgeries.
Insurance Policies
Animal Trust is happy for clients to cover the cost of our services via their pet insurance plan. Doing this does take time and resource and therefore all claims via insurance policies will incur a £7.10 charge. If you intend on using an insurance policy to pay for a service carried out by Animal Trust, we ask that you inform us as soon as possible.
As a pet owner it is our client’s full responsibility to ensure that prior to claiming on an insurance policy, they are certain that the policy covers the proposed claim. When claiming via an insurance policy, there are two types of claim;
- A direct claim: If your insurance policy claim is in excess of £300.00 Animal Trust will claim the amount from your insurer directly. If you are able to provide pre-authorisation for the claim from your insurance company, you will only need to cover the cost of your insurance excess. If you aren’t able to provide pre-authorisation before the medication or procedure is required, you will instead need to pay an up-front fee of £150. Any overpayment will subsequently be refunded to you once the claim has been processed.
- An indirect claim: If your claim is less than £300.00 you will be required to pay the total cost direct to Animal Trust and then claim the amount back from your insurance provider.
It is important to be aware that in both claim cases, it is the pet owner who is liable for the total cost. If, for whatever reason, the insurer does not make payment within the allocated time frame specified on the policy, Animal Trust will contact the client directly and request that they make the payment. Animal Trust has no relationship with pet insurers and therefore cannot oversee individual claim processes on behalf of clients.
If an animal receives regular treatment (e.g — monthly medication) and the client wishes to claim this amount via an insurance policy they will be liable for a £7.10 fee for each individual claim. Clients also have the option to pay for long-term medication up front and later claim for a number of prescriptions in a single claim, which will reduce the cost of the admin fees. It is important when considering this option that the client has made contact with the insurer prior, to confirm if there is an expiry period on claims.
When a new client has not claimed on an insurance policy before, Animal Trust may require pre-authorisation from the insurer and the relevant surgery will explain the requirements of this process. When an animal is referred to another Animal Trust surgery, communication in regard to insurance and pre-authorisation should remain with the initial Animal Trust surgery.
At Animal Trust we cannot offer advice regarding an insurance policy a client is considering to purchase, nor can we comment on an existing policy. If at anytime a client has any questions in regard to insurance policies we advise to make contact with the insurer directly.
If you are considering obtaining insurance and want more information, you can compare the prices and features of various products available from different providers using online services such as BoughtByMany, MoneySupermarket and CompareTheMarket. We recommend that you carefully evaluate the level of cover provided by any insurance product before signing up to it.
Financial Assistance
At Animal Trust we strive to provide clients with affordable, all-inclusive, high-quality veterinary care and due to this, we don’t offer payment plans for our services.
We do understand that veterinary bills can sometimes be unexpected and a client may have concerns regarding their ability to pay a bill. If at anytime a client feels they may experience financial difficulty we advise that this is discussed with the team at the surgery as soon as possible.