Direct Insurance Claims

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Rachel B — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:02:44 GMT

We don't charge for a normal insurance claim (client pays us, insurance pays client) but direct claims we do, as several other poeple have said its mostly due to the time and effort spent chasing up insurance companies and then not beign paid the full ammount due to it not being covered etc etc. Cant honestly say how much we charge for this as i'm not really sure at the moment! We try not to do direct claims too often, mostly we will if its likey to be huge bill and all (or mostly) in one go i.e. cruciate op etc. It realy doesnt help when insurance companies keep tellign people that "not to worry you dont have to lift a finger we'll deal straight with the vets" as someone else said before, that's not really their decision to make.

I'm not personally against charging, for a direct claim at least just because of the hassle i have had to deal with because of them, but i dont think i would be too happy about having to make poeple pay for a normal insurance claim...hmm

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Dove — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:20:06 GMT

We don't charge but the boss now has time set aside each week for admin and insurance claims. We only accept direct claims from one the major Pet insurance companies or if over a certain amount and has been pre-authorised.In the past we have processed direct claims only to find the client had cancelled their insurance or had defaulted on direct debits making their insurance invalid.

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 07:00:02 GMT

we dont charge as i would be reallly pissed off if i had to pay more. we also find alot of people would not afford the work if not insured (not in a great area) so without insurance we would not have as much work.

we DO NOT do direct claims though as have been caught out b4 with pepole cancelling policys etc so they pay and we get the form sent off with in a few days so they are not waiting x x

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Sal the 1st — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:59:56 GMT

well thats me told then. Shame all the same because if the insurance companies had to pay for the time veterinary staff spend filling out forms and answering telephone queries from them some of them might be a bit more mindful of the cost

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Roseann21 — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:17:43 GMT

We charge £25 for direct claims - not that I can justify this, but it's obviously not my decision to charge this. And no, you can't claim it back from the insurance companies as it's not treatment.

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Sal the 1st — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 20:50:35 GMT

just a thought - if practices did charge would the client be able to add that cost to the claim? that way its the insurance company paying and not the client (tho it will probably impact on premiums at a later date)

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Sal the 1st — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:09:45 GMT

[quote user="Anna Rayne"]

We tell clients we don't do them, and its hard to get them to understand as so many insurance companies say they do them that's it not just up to the insurance company to make that decision.

[/quote]

Yes I think some of the insurance companies try to make too many decisions for the practices. Anybody else come across the one that tells the client they have to get a written prescription from their vet so they can get their medication online rather than at the practice.

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Anna Rayne — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 22:20:53 GMT

We don't charge at the moment but i have locummed at one that charged £5 per form. They did employ someone specifically though as they had so many of them.

We only do direct claims if there is no other option. They have to be authorised by the practice principle / practice manager. They have to pay the excess and we need to see the insurance documents up front too I think.

We tell clients we don't do them, and its hard to get them to understand as so many insurance companies say they do them that's it not just up to the insurance company to make that decision.

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Sal the 1st — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:26:00 GMT

we dont charge where I am now but have worked a few places that do. One thing I have noticed is how many companies dont have freepost on their forms and when you add up the cost of the stamps and envelopes etc that can amount to a not inconsiderable sum over the course of a year. Add to that the cost of faxing or posting long histories (sometimes repeatedly from experience) and it soon tots up. Unless its a huge amount I must admit I am not a fan of direct claims as I have had to chase clients for insurance forms (because lets face it a few of them are in no hurry to bring in forms) and also where insurance has not covered the whole amount this is where you end up with money outstanding and clients moaning that they arent paying and we should take it up with insurance company if we want our money - and yes that does happen.

On the whole I am in favour of charging a fee to process insurance claims - it might be quick (sometimes) but it is still time that needs to be spent that could be spent on other things. The fee should reflect the amount of time on average that is spent

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

roughcut — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:46:47 GMT

We charge £5.10 per new condition and nothing for continuations for us to complete the forms and send them off, this is charged as an admin fee and when you compare it to car insurances etc, which charge sometimes £30 admin fee just to change an address, I think its a bargain. We do direct claims if the bill is over £500 otherwise the client needs to pay us.

Ruthx

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

VNsmac — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:06:06 GMT

We never used to charge for completing claim forms at my practice, but recently the management have decided we should start to. None of the nursing staff are particularly happy about this as we feel it penalises client for having pet insurance, and in reality it doesnt take that long to fill out a form. I woud agree with charging for direct claims as they can sometimes take a bit more effort - chasing the client up for the form and having an outstanding debt at the practice - but overall i would prefer not to charge for any.

Some staff have pointed out that Doctors and other professionals regularly charge for the signing of documentation, etc, as they see it as charging for their professional time and service, so are we doing ourselves a disservice by not charging for our own professional time??

For me personally i still prefer not to charge.

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

BengalcatRVN — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:52:30 GMT

I try and get my insureance claim forms done asap, I hate leaving them. 1 pratice I went to charged, £4.70 I think it was. Took almost 2 months for them to do my claim, very frustrating. They lost it, then the person went on holiday, then they posted it back to me, the ins co processed it quickly for me. I was charged, and not happy. Personally, I don't think charging for them is right, we have enough accusations of being money grabbing as it is. It isn't like it forms overtime (these are normally done during work time), or we have to employ anyone extra for it (unless you do?)

So personally, I would never feel comfortable charging, and if you are thinking about changing your policy, is it going to be worth the upset of your current clients?

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

SmegSlayer — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:20:35 GMT

My late dogs' practice charged £7-9 for every insurance claim- direct or otherwise. My last practice would only do a direct claim if the bill was over £500, the client paid their excess on the day and it was authorised by the insurance company.

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Leah Morley — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:01:32 GMT

Funnily enough I've come onto vetnurse.co.uk to check out whether or not clinics are charging for completing insurance claim forms. Nice to see it's an issue for others. We have a high number of insured clients, which is great for patient care, but easily requires a part-time employee to complete the large voume of forms - regardless of who the payment is being made to.

With direct claims, we find it's not the form completion time that we gives us issues, but the paying out time. Insurance companies will pay individuals much quicker than they will settle the outstanding amount with the veterinary clinic. This is obviously not the clients fault and they should not suffer for this, but in offering direct claims once treatment reaches a specific amount, would we be justified in charging an administration fee to complete the claim on the acceptance that we now have a deferred payment for the work carried out. Plus the additional time spent chasing those tiny discrepancies that have not been covered by the insurance company payment.

Another factor for our practice is that our clients are quite good at forgetting their wallets and their claim forms. For those of you offering direct claims how do you ensure the client brings the claim form at the time of treatment?

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

Steph Worsley — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:50:10 GMT

Personally I didn't find that direct claims took any longer than non-direct claims to complete

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

emma sime — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:15:43 GMT

My last practice was the same, owners were expected to pay their bill then claim it back unless it was over a certain amount (200 or 250 rings a bell) and it had been specially agreed. I don't know how I feel about owners being charged for it as the reason they have insurance in the first place is so that they don't have to fork lots of money out at one time. However I understand it does take up quite a bit of staff time. Difficult one!

Re: Direct Insurance Claims

shelly jefferies — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:31:09 GMT

We do not charge our clients but we have changed our rules.....when i joined the practice just over a year ago i took over running all insurance claims. When i took over this job the practice had a lot of money (i mean thousands) outstanding in direct claims, there was no real rules over insurance so just a bit if a free for all. This has all now been tidied up and i am on top of it all, we only have 4 remaining clients who are still on direct claims. Anybody else a direct claim has to be agreed (normally if total is over £350) the practice now has under one thousand pounds outstandin in claims including equine claims. I think difficult if charge for doing claims, however what I have also cracked down on is the owners completing their bits correctly. When I took them over the owners used to just sign the bottom and put in policy number and the person doing them at the time completed the rest, now i ensure the reception staff make the owners fill in the whole front page as this saves a lot of time!