Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Vicky RVN — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:17:56 GMT

[quote user="Claire BearRVN"]

When we get new clients, they sign a client registration form that confirms details are correct and that they received terms and conditions of business, it also states that they understand fees are payable at time of tx. etc etc.

[/quote]

We do that too.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Katie Tallett RVN MBVNA — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:22:54 GMT

we do direct claims for big bills, client signs a form to say that they are aware they will be responsible for unsettled amounts etc. they pay excess and £20 admin fee and their responsibility to chase up claim, they will also get credit charges to the amount if it takes more than 5 weeks to be settled unless the ins company have queries. those unsure payouts always get pre-authed before op/work. we also take a copy of ins cert and only have 1 nurse per site to deal with these for continuity.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Kim Buckley — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:18:32 GMT

We do direct claims for big bills. In a way it annoys me that a lot of referral practices don't do direct claims. I can understand if the client wasn't insured with a very good insurance company but a lot of people have insurance because they don't have lot's of money. I know that if my dog was referred I would struggle to pay it hence why I have insurance.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Claire Cameron — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:23:28 GMT

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Nick Shackleton — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:22:29 GMT

[quote user="Kathryn Welsh"]

[quote user="Claire BearRVN"]insurance fails to pay they accept liability for all costs. [/quote]

Its a great idea and ours is literally three lines saying just that!

[/quote]

We have a direct claim agreement like what you guys do! So if Insurance decide not to cough then the client has to

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Kathryn Welsh — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:19:51 GMT

[quote user="Claire BearRVN"]insurance fails to pay they accept liability for all costs. [/quote]

Its a great idea and ours is literally three lines saying just that!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Claire Cameron — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:16:57 GMT

We try and do pre-auth for PetPlan, and only direct claim if we a) Know the client, b) reputable insurance company, normally only PetPlan but willing to consider others, we have a regular diabetic with Saga we do direct claims for.

My boss does some equine work and some of these are direct claims.

As a general rule, we don't encourage direct claims,but will pass to partners to consider individual cases. I am in the process of drawing up a form to sign that states if insurance fails to pay they accept liability for all costs.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Kathryn Welsh — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:05:15 GMT

We do them if its going to be over £500 - but owners have to sign a form saying they understand that its their responsablity to settle anything not covered or left outstanding - they then get a copy and we keep a copy. So if there are any problems we get them out and point out to owners that they agreed to settle account. Most of time not a problem. Had a few recently though that the insurance company have excluded something that shouldn't have been - for example panacur in the treatment of lungworm - dog had chest xrays, BAL and faecal testing - treatment was abs, NSAID and panacur. Our receptionist process claims and they did not realise that the panacur should have been covered so didn't query when it came back excluded. But when i saw it phoned insurance company and explained they were fine and sent a cheque out same day but just always check what has been excluded!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Jen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:46:01 GMT

We will do them happily for petlan and any other if we have done a pre-auth first (but NEVER for E @ L). We have not had any problems so far. Although we try not to do them were possible.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Nicola Smith — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:34:23 GMT

We will but only with prior arrangement and only from reputable companies. We always ask for policy docs and claim forms up front, and where possible try to do a pre auth. Most times it has been for over £250 and no problems so far. If we think there may be any quibble over claim we wont do direct.

I won't fill in a form to be paid out to the owner unless they have paid us.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

SmegSlayer — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:01:48 GMT

only for over £500. We've found most insurance companies won't authorise a direct claim for less than that much.

My dog had MRI's at Davies Specialists twice- the first was about £950 and the second was nearly £1500 and Davies stated that they don't do direct insurance claims so all had to be paid on collection of my dog. My family is weird in that they put money aside for things like that (or the boiler breaking down) so it wasn't an issue. when i say this to most people a get a gormless stare!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:15:02 GMT

We do, but only for petplan, no one else.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Sarah Cahill — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:03:06 GMT

Thanks everyone, has been useful!

I did a claim tonight for a client with a bill of about £800, her insurers didn't pay out her last claim so she arranged payment and sent us 4 post dated cheques, only to call us a week later and say she'd had her bank account cancelled so to rip up the cheques! Went to do her claim tonight and she'd had the cheek to ask More Th>n to pay her direct!!!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Fiona Leathers — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:50:26 GMT

We gerenally don't, definitely never for E&L, but there are some clients who we will do direct claims for. It just depends on the client really. We're a small enough practice to know our clients really well, and we make decisions on different reasons for different clients!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Kay Eminson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:36:13 GMT

We do in some cases which have been okay by the manager but that is rare. We've had far too many companies not pay out and left bills outstanding. One client we did this for has disapeared off the face of the planet leaving us with a large bill

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Steph Worsley — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:33:43 GMT

we do for most companies (most of our bills are over £200 anyway) not Eand L tho. its a bit easier for our accounts team as we never get payment at time anyway always invoice, the thing we say to uninsured clients is they need to leave a deposit

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Busy bee — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:30:38 GMT

We do on occasions - I always ask to see policy document from owner before agreeing to do a direct claim or big operation etc to make sure the condition is covered and also to see if there is a maximum payout - some policies only pay up to a certain amount per condition or year etc.

And along with everyone else - never do direct claims with E&L!!!!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

loobylou — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:27:19 GMT

We try not to but will for large bills if they are insured with pet and pre-authorised.
We have in extreme circumstances (i.e pet may be put to sleep as owner has no access to money) done them for other companies but ALWAYS get them pre-authorised and get the excess paid by the owner.

We've have been in a situation before where we have done a direct claim (£800) and the ins company paid the owner! They cashed the cheque and then refused to pay us. We ended up writing off the debt cos the owner couldnt/ wouldnt pay.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:13:45 GMT

We dont do direct claims but have on a couple of occasions allowed clients if bil was over £300 but never E&L

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Maisy — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:05:07 GMT

[quote user="Nick Shackleton"]

We offer direct claims for any bill over £400, also there are only a certain number of insurance companies that we do direct claims for ie E&L is a big no no!!!

[/quote]

That's the one I meant! Claims are never a guarantee with them

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Nick Shackleton — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:01:24 GMT

We offer direct claims for any bill over £400, also there are only a certain number of insurance companies that we do direct claims for ie E&L is a big no no!!!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Vicky RVN — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:54:31 GMT

We don't, unless a client specifically requests it and speaks to the boss about it. Like has been said, we'd end up with huge amounts of outstanding bills, and then if the company didn't pay out...?!

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

Maisy — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:52:41 GMT

Usually only when the bill is over around £500, or less if the client is known to the practice and money is tight (and also if they're insured with a reputable company that is known to pay out!!) The outstanding debts got so high that most direct claims were stopped because of this.

Re: Insurance Claims - does your practice claim direct?

EFM — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:49:35 GMT

We do, but only over 250 pound. And when the client wants to do this we charge a 250 pound deposit that the client gets back when everything is received.