For Veterinarians > Vets, Help Pet Parents Pay Without Leaving Them in Debt

Vets, Help Pet Parents Pay Without Leaving Them in Debt

Veterinarians often face pet owners that love their pets but cannot afford to take care of their pets properly. Not only is this hard on the pet owner, this situation often creates a tough predicament for the vet, also. Veterinarians by default love pets as proven by their career choice. However, the daily reminder that they cannot save every pet has led vets to have above average rates of depression and suicide. Economic euthanasia, having to put a pet to sleep simply because the owner lacks the money to afford a vet bill, is a primary source of this mental anguish. Seeing a pet lost to economic euthanasia may be one of the hardest things vets see and have to deal with regularly.

The Rising Costs of Providing Veterinary Care

With or without pet insurance, the costs of veterinary care are increasing annually. Pet owners have become more demanding, while veterinarians are now able to offer higher standards of pet care, resulting in higher costs. Whether pet insurance is right for a pet parent's need or other savings account, pet owners need to plan for their pet's veterinary care. Unfortunately, most people don't do this and lack the amount of money necessary for a pet emergency or surgery.

Pet Insurance Can Help Sometimes

So how are veterinarians helping address this need for financial assistance for their pet patients? More and more vets are recommending pet parents purchase pet insurance. The pet insurance business has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Pet insurance is a proactive step on behalf of pet parents to prepare themselves for additional assistance paying pet bills. Unlike human insurance with an established (and often complicated) payer submission process, pet parents pay the vet bills then are reimbursed by insurers after providing proof of services. The age of the pet and the breed play a big part in how much pet insurance will cost the pet parent. Insurers typically bill monthly with escalating yearly costs as the pet ages. Like human healthcare insurance, pet insurance may exclude many services. Before buying, it is a good idea for pet parents to research which pet insurance coverage is best suited for them.

Beyond Pet Insurance, What Else Can Pet Parents’ Do?

As any practicing vet, you have undoubtedly faced a pet parent that does not have the proper means to address a financial crisis for their pet. Here is a list of solutions that many vets use, knowing that the answer may be a combination of these: 

• Simply discount the price: This means eating some of the cost and lost revenue.

• Installment plan or in-house financing: This may present higher administrative burdens and potential problems for collection.

• Cash, check, or a credit card: A natural and preferable option for those that can afford it.

• CareCredit: Pays quickly but may be difficult to qualify and also costs your practice 10%.

• Scratchpay: Pays a little slower but has an easier approval process that pays quickly and still costs your practice 5%.

• Crowdfunding: A good option for non-life threating needs but may need supplementing with other options for emergencies.

Getting Your Customer to Pay with Credit

Ideally, your pet parents can back with cash or check. But, it is important that you get paid and your customer may be forced to pay with some form of credit. Assuming they have not already exhausted their credit limit, the customer can charge their own credit card to take care of their pet's bill. This usually results in your customer paying more in interest, but it keeps you from being part of the collection game. The next challenge comes when they have already hit their limit or can only pay for a portion of the cost using their credit card, so what next?

Accepting CareCredit and Scratchpay

Both CareCredit and Scratchpay are potential financial solutions that vets can offer to their customers if they cannot find financing elsewhere. Each is a little different but generally come at a cost to the vet’s practice to offer. CareCredit charges a fee of 10% from your practice and typically provides the customer with a 6-month interest-free loan with other varying terms. Scratchpay charges a fee of 5% to your practice and sends you funds via ACH in approximately two days. There is no interest-free period for the loan, and terms may also differ based on loan length. Both solutions require some registration steps from your staff to keep up with payments, but your practice gets paid quickly, and the pet receives the needed treatment. The downside is that your customer may end up with a bill that can take years to pay off.

How Your Customers Can Crowdfund to Pay Credit Card, CareCredit or Scratchpay Debt

With the rising costs of pet care and decreasing ability to bear those costs, more and more pet owners are using crowdfunding as a solution. Crowdfunding can help them pay significant and unexpected expenses for their pets’ health. However, crowdfunding is not a magic wand that instantly supplies your customer with all of the required money, especially for the emergency treatment of their pet. Using crowdfunding to fundraise on behalf of a pet takes some time and effort for the pet owner to fundraise to pay their vet bills. However, it can be a great way for family and friends, many who care a lot about the pet, to assist with getting the bills paid and the pet the care it needs.

While there are now many crowdfunding websites to help people raise money, CoFund My Pet partners with vets to focus only on raising money for pet healthcare. CoFund My Pet is different because we not only allow people to crowdfund their pet’s medical needs, we will only pay veterinarians—no cash access, no bank accounts. Once a pet parent starts a campaign and raises at least $25, we issue a debit card to the customer that they can use to pay their vet bills. Since the CoFund My Pet Debit Card works just like any other credit or debit card, your staff does not have the extra work to register or provide any additional proof of service. We only pay vets as our promise to donors and pet lovers everywhere.

How can you use a CoFund My Pet fundraiser to pay previous credit card charges, CareCredit or Scratchpay bills? Once a pet owner has loaded their campaign donations onto their CoFund My Pet Debit Card, simply reverse the previous credit card transaction from one of these other funding sources, then bill this new debit card to pay that bill. Reversing charges then rerunning a different card is likely something your practice does every week. Your customer can take advantage of temporary financing to address the pet’s immediate health issues while later using crowdfunding to pay off their vet bills.

Final Thoughts

Vets are pet heroes, and we all know and appreciate your hard work and efforts. Any pet lover knows how vital the right vet can be at a challenging time. Tackling the challenges of pet owners who cannot pay will likely not be a problem the industry will solve anytime soon. At CoFund My Pet, we are offering a new solution your practice can put into use to help. If you know someone unable to afford their pet’s healthcare expenses, consider suggesting crowdfunding as a solution to raise the funds needed. True, it may take some time for a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to pay the bill, so they may need to use other more immediate ways to address the pet needs in the short run.

Are you ready to help a pet-parent start a campaign?

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