Overnight hospital costs

SNORKEY

SNORKEY

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Hi, my horse is going in to have X-rays and nerve blocks next week. My insurer KBIS doesn't cover overnight hospital stays. I'm really worried he's going to have to stay if he needs an op.
I heard that vets can get around this and claim the cost of overnight stays as something else? Is this true and how much do they usually charge each night?
Thanks
 
I was charged £21.90 per day livery for my horse despite providing my own feed and hay (as the last thing I wanted was a change in food when he was already poorly) and the insurance company would not pay for it!

Was no odds to me as I ended up exceeding the insurance by several K anyway, so it was all academic who paid for what in the end!
 
That's not as bad as I thought for livery. Ive got the highest level insurance with KBIS yet they don't cover hospital livery and the limet is £3k so I'm hoping he doesn't exceed that. I think il be changing insurer after this.
 
I got charged about £50 a night for a stay in my local veterinary hospital.

I was shocked when I got the bill (I had been told the livery was about £12 a day!)

I rung them up to question it, as my insurance had the vet livery as a seperate item. Their very rude response was along the lines of: "Insurance companies dont cover livery so we charge it as a nursing cost."

However with this paticular vets stay I had rather a lot of problems with them, and would never, ever send any animal there for an operation again.

Best thing to do is to give the vets a ring, and ask how much is the livery per day, and what does it include for.
 
SNORKEY said:
That's not as bad as I thought for livery. Ive got the highest level insurance with KBIS yet they don't cover hospital livery and the limet is £3k so I'm hoping he doesn't exceed that. I think il be changing insurer after this.
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I'm not sure you do have their highest level of insurance, I am with them, I am covered for up to 5k and that includes hospital livery fees up to £500.
 
The fee that a hospital will charge for an overnight stay can be broken down into a)nursing costs and b) "hotel" or livery costs. Insurers won't pay for livery costs as you are responsible for that aspect of your horse's care. But they will pay for nursing costs as that will be part of your horse's ongoing veterinary care. There is no need to try to "hide" genuine costs, nor should any reputable hospital or vet be trying to do so. That is fraud and if anyone got found out there'd be hell to pay.
 
Bionic boy I asked for the highest level with the lowest excess and that's what I'm covered for. When I first took my insurance out with them some years ago I had £5k cover as well. I've read the key facts document they sent and the highest scale on my documents only shows £3k vets bills with no hospital costs. I'd check your documents just incase they've changed yours too.
 
The £21.90 was livery only. I was then charged £25 per day standard veterinary and nursing care, which is covered by insurance.

To be honest all these costs pale into insignificance against drugs/dressings etc which are soo expensive! My surgeon forewarned me that they would be high and was very upfront about all the costs!

P.S. I have 5K cover on my insurance, but if investigations and treatments are unsuccessful and you end up having to have surgery, you will exceed it IME
 
Hi snorkey. I am with Kbis too. Just had my boy in overnight last month and Kbis paid out. My excess is 125 and my limit is 5k. Have 500 hospitilisation too.
 
I am with NFU and they pay 50% of the hospital livery costs - which at £27 per day soon mounted up. There is also a professional service charge which is paid daily - I think they paid that in full.
 
Nikkirip I don't understand when I called them about 2 yrs ago and upped my insurance I said I want the lowest excess and the highest amount of vets cover. And she said that £3k with £135 excess is the highest they do! And on my documents he's class E which shows as being the highest and also that non of the other levels pays hospital stay costs.
I'm going to call them tomorrow as they put my insurance up by £10 a month when I increased it and I'm paying £35 a month for my horse to be insured for £3k. So I'm not happy about that.
 
Depends on the insurance and the hospital.
Mine don't break it down into nursing and livery and charge around £30 a day even if like me you send your own food.

Then NFU paid 50% of that up to a limit of £500 I think so I paid the difference.
 
I am with Petplan. When my pony had surgery 2 years ago Petplan got round it by lumping nursing and livery into one then saying they would pay 50% of both! In all the total cost of the operation was about £2,700 (to the hospital anyway, not including any of the aftercare when she came home) and I think I paid about £150 towards livery and nursing for the week she was in. It's probably fair enough as that is what full livery seems to cost. They couldn't hand walk her because of what she had (chip fracture) but they did groom her and call to keep me updated often enough. I also had to pay several hundred to hire transport to bring her to and from the hospital as no one from my yard could take me and I don't have my own. It was an expensive week!
 
Hi

Soemtimes it is worth ringing insurers and asking if they will pay anything toward hospitaliastion costs. At the practice I used to work out insurers would pay half or all the livery costs as long as they were invoiced as hospitalisation and the word livery was not included anywhere on the invoice!! Might be worth looking into.

Hope this helps!!
 
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