Alexandra Ramirez
Healthy Paws Pet Insurance won the Gold Award. Healthy Paws pet insurance company scored excellent marks across the board.
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History of Healthy Paws – How it all Started
Healthy Paws Pet Insurance was started in 2009 by Co founders Rob Jackson and Steve Siadek. They met through a local, no kill shelter and both had a passion for saving animals and taking care of them that made them become good friends. Steve had a major career change when he left his corporate career to become the executive director of the shelter.
Rob was an insurance exec with a huge heart for strays and continually came back to the shelter to help more and more dogs that needed his help. Both of them saw a need to help pet owners with the high costs of quality veterinary care and also wanted to help the animal rescue facilities with the sick animals that they had in their facilities as well. Both men had a mission to help pets, whether they were adopted or homeless and that mission resulted in the creation of Healthy Paws Pet Insurance and Foundation.
They have made a huge impact on many pet families, giving them access to the best pet care at an affordable price that their pet owners can afford. He claims they’ve paid have covered anything from advanced cancer treatments to surgeries that are so numerous it’s impossible to count them all. With Healthy Paws Pet Insurance, cats and dogs are living healthier, longer lives and have a better quality of life too.
Customer rated the best pet insurance company for three consecutive years, 2012, 2013 and 2014; they are well loved by pet owners everywhere for their compassion for helping pet owners take care of their pets and for taking care of pets that don’t have owners as well. They make the claim process even simpler by enabling customers to manage their policies online in the Customer Center.
Healthy Paws is an accredited member of the BBB since 2011 and is based out of Bellevue, Washington. They have top ratings at Petinsurancereview.com, consumersadvocate.org, Yelp and got the top service award from Angie’s List in 2013.
There is also a great pet insurance iPhone app that is extremely convenient and helps make everything to do with Healthy Paws easy for the pet owner. Customer service that is compassionate and caring is their goal and they strive to provide that for every single pet owner.
Their incredible non-profit foundation is responsible for helping literally hundreds of homeless pets in the shelters and the rescues they encounter to receive much needed medical care. The Every Quote Gives Hope™ is a medical grant program strictly for this purpose and it has helped countless needy animals get the veterinary care they need. Once they are healthy again, they are able to be adopted out.
Healthy Paws Pet Insurance’s foundation is the four C’s: Compassion, Connection, Communication and Commitment. These are the mainstays of their whole way of thinking and they are driven to ensure these values are focused on and met every single day in whatever way they can.
Compassion – It’s clear that that the customer service staff of Healthy Paws are pet lovers themselves. The compassion that underlines everything they do exhibits that love. With their mission to help all animals have a better life, they strive to create the best plans, hire the best representatives and offer a service that is second to none. Their love for animals is why they do what they do and it shows.
Connection – There is a strong connection between a pet and their owner. There are connections between animals and the pet advocates that speak out for them. It’s these connections that drive the staff of Healthy Paws to work hard every day, happily and with joy and the animal lives they can save and make better and happier through their efforts. They strongly encourage anyone who wants a pet to adopt…saving the animals that need homes, that have lost theirs for whatever reason and giving them a second chance to find their ‘happily ever after’ with a new pet owner.
Communication – Without communication, a company has nothing. At Healthy Paws, communication is an important part of what they do. They work hard to build relationships with their customers, being reliable and doing what they say they will do. It’s the trust and respect that pet owners have for them that make them one of the best pet insurance companies out there. They open and honest about how they do things, WHY they do things and what they do.
Commitment – If things were made complicated and difficult, than the commitment to make pets’ lives easier wouldn’t happen. At Healthy Paws Pet Insurance, they make sure that the plan is easy to understand, that claims get reimbursed quickly and without hassle and that they will do everything in their power to help reduce a pet owner’s stress, especially if their pet is very sick. They also have a strong commitment to help animals get adopted and find new homes. The more animals they can make healthy, the more they can find new homes for.
Qualification Process for Getting Your Pet Insured
Getting a quote for your pet insurance is so easy; you may not even believe it. Just click on the button on the home page and fill out the short questionnaire which asks you for the following info:
- Pet’s name
- Pet’s age and DOB
- Breed of pet
- Choose dog or cat
- Approximate weight
- Email address
- Zip code
Once you fill out that information you will be taken to the next page which is your quote for the information you gave. This page gives you a few options to customize your plan by allowing you to choose the level of reimbursement you want, (90%, 80% or 70%) and the amount of deductible you want to be responsible for. ($100, $250, $500)
The amount of your monthly payment is right there on the webpage and there’s no waiting to see what you’ll have to pay. You can enroll right on the website. If needed you can add more pets to the policy on this second page as well as have the quote emailed to an address of your choosing.
As you go on to the next page, once your deductible and amount of reimbursement is chosen, you will have all the information you need about your policy and a bit more information that you will need to fill out.
Pets are required to have a physical exam prior to be insured as is outlined below:
- For pets that are younger than 6 years of age, a physical exam within the last 6 months is required
- For pets over 6 years a physical exam within the 30 days is required. Policies are not able to be purchased for animals 14 or older.
You will also be required to not pre-existing conditions that you pet has. Pre-existing mans that they had whatever condition or illness before the policy was purchased and started. There is a 15 day waiting period for all illnesses and accidents, and a 12 month waiting period for any illnesses related to hip dysplasia. What this means is that if, during the designated waiting period, your pet has to be seen by a vet in regards to those illnesses, it is not covered under the policy.
You will be required to pay a $25 dollar set up fee that is a one-time charge, and you have a 30 day money back guarantee as well. The day of coverage is 12:01am of the day after you sign up plus the waiting periods that apply.
On that page, you fill out your name, physical address, email address, telephone number and add your credit card information to process the payment. It is extremely important that you understand the policy and what it covers and doesn’t cover BEFORE you fully sign up and pay for your policy. Even though there is a money back guarantee, if you read the policy carefully and know exactly what you’re getting, there will be no reason to have to cancel it right after payment.
Coverage Plans Healthy Paws Pet Insurance Offers
Healthy Paws Pet Insurance makes insuring your pet very simple. There is ONE plan that covers your pets, and then there are the exclusions that it doesn’t cover that will also be outlined below. This makes it very easy for the pet owner to know what their plan covers and what it doesn’t so there are no disappointments or surprises later. They wanted to make the process simple, so they have ONE plan that covers it all. Everything listed below is covered UNLESS it falls under the exclusion or limitations listed.
Coverage Includes:
- Illnesses
- Accidents
- Chronic Conditions
- Hereditary Conditions
- Congenital Conditions
- Cancer
- Diagnostic Treatment
- Surgery
- X-rays
- Blood Tests
- Ultrasounds
- Hospitalization
- Prescription Medications
- Emergency Care
- Specialty Care
- Alternative Treatment
- Unlimited Lifetime Benefits
- Unlimited Claims
- Annual Deductible, NOT per condition deductible
What is NOT Covered:
- Any pre-existing condition
- Veterinary Exam/Office Fee
- Cruciate ligament problems (pre-existing) to one leg as respects the cost of future treatment for problems of the other leg.
- Preventative care (includes spaying and neutering, vaccinations, titer test, flea control, heartworm medication, de-worming, nail trimming, grooming, anal gland expression, dental health care (unless the teeth are damaged during an accident during the covered period. In that case, the extractions and reconstruction of the lower and upper canine teeth
- Any elective procedure (tail docking, ear cropping, micro-chipping, de-clawing, dew claw removal, ear cleaning, teeth brushing, etc)
- Boarding
- Behavioral modification
- Training
- Therapy
- Medications for behavioral modification
- Diseases preventable by medication (lice, heartworms, parasites, fleas)
- Breeding and anything related to breeding and whelping
- Food
- Housing
- Exercise
- Working Pets that get any condition that results from work related activities related to racing, breeding, law enforcement, guarding or any other commercial use
Filing a Claim with Healthy Paws Pet Insurance
Healthy Paws strives to make submitting a claim as easy as possible. When filling out your FIRST claim with Healthy Paws, be sure to have the veterinarian include a copy of the pet’s medical records with doctor’s notes and lab results. Sign into your account and click on the link to filing a claim (this is under the “For Customers” tab) you can choose to use a custom claim for or the blank form. On that form you will fill out:
- Policy number
- Your name
- Pet’s name
- Phone number
- Invoice number (from the veterinary form)
- Invoice total
- Veterinary hospital name
- Date of pet showing first signs of illness/injury
- Fill out information on what pet was seen for
- List if there was any other hospital that the pet was seen for, for this claim
- Sign and date the form
Once your form is filled out correctly and all invoices and/or medical records are included, you can email, fax or mail the claim to Healthy Paws using any one of their methods they have available of contacting them.
That’s all there is to it! Things that can cause delays in reimbursement are not filling out the form correctly and not having the medical records sent in the allotted amount of time. To get a claim looked at for reimbursement, you need to make sure that it is filed before 90 days after the invoice date. It is better to get into the habit of filing right after the visit to avoid losing track of time.
Understand this is a reimbursement pet insurance, which means you pay the veterinarian and then Healthy Paws reimburses you the amount based on amount of reimbursement chosen and deductible paid. Claims are paid in a timely fashion, so you’re not waiting months to get your money back. As long as you’ve filled the claim out properly and gotten them the medical records/info they request, everything moves along at a great speed.
Help and Support Services
Healthy Paws has several ways for you to contact them, should you have any questions or need help with something. Customer service is a very important matter to them and they strive to ensure that every pet owner feels listened to and important. You can reach them on through email and telephone. There is an embedded email form right on the website or for claims you can email them at [email protected].
Their telephone number is 1-800-453-4054. All of the customer service representatives are happy, friendly and compassionate about your concerns and will do everything in their power to get you answers and solutions that you are happy with.
Healthy Paws knows that sometimes things can come up unexpectedly, especially with pets. In SOME cases (and it’s handled on a case by case basis) Healthy Paws will pre-authorize highly expensive treatments with the veterinary hospital to help reduce the financial burden that can accompany these types of treatments.
Veterinary Clinics
Healthy Paws will cover reimbursements that fall under the plan from any licensed veterinary clinic, including specialists and emergency medical hospitals. This means that you can stay with your existing veterinarian.
Contact Information and Where to Find Healthy Paws on Social Media
Contacting Healthy Paws is easy and they are happy to receive your email or phone call. They have an email form that you can fill out directly on their website. Getting a policy for your pets is pretty easy and straightforward right on the site, but if you have questions, they can help.
Website: www.healthypawspetinsurance.com
Email: On the website in an embedded form
- Email for Claims: [email protected]
- Telephone Support – 1-800-453-4054
- Fax – 1-888-228-4129
- Mailing Address:
Healthy Paws Pet Insurance
P.O. Box 50034
Bellevue, Washington 98015
If you’d like to follow Healthy Paws Pet Insurance on their social media sites (and they invite all of their customers and supporters to do that) you can find them at the links below.
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/gohealthypaws
- Twitter – https://twitter.com/GoHealthyPaws
- Google + – https://twitter.com/GoHealthyPaws
- YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/HealthyPaws
With a strong compassion for saving animals and helping pet owners lower the cost of veterinary care, Healthy Paws is at the top of the list for taking care of the pet owners AND the pets. They have helped so many animals get the health care they need and also have helped pet owners spend less money and not have to sacrifice the quality of health care their pets receive.
It doesn’t get much easier than Healthy Paws has made it to get a pet insurance plan for your pet. It’s perfect for those who don’t want to talk to sales representatives and just find out right off the top what they will have to pay and how often and what it covers. Everything is right there in the open, no hidden fees, no hidden exclusions and that builds a trust that you can count on when you need them.
Resources
- Healthy Paws – http://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/
