Question re insurance/lameness investigations

Kenzo

Kenzo

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Can you claim from your insurance for a full lameness investigation, talking the full works, radiography, ultrasonography and scintigraphy or will they only pay out for treatment once the investigation has been done?

Is this something that varies between insurance companies?
 
Unless it is an emergency you are supposed to tell them you want to have tests done, to get their agreement, they will want their various forms filled in. If you have the tests done first and then ask for the money they might get arsey.
 
BigRed said:
Unless it is an emergency you are supposed to tell them you want to have tests done, to get their agreement, they will want their various forms filled in. If you have the tests done first and then ask for the money they might get arsey.
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Yes I'm aware that you need to notify them before tests are done, (I probably didn't word my orignal post very well), what I meant is, is it cheeky asking or expecting them to pay for it, thing is I've never claimed from an insurance company before for anything (suppose you could say I've been lucky) but it also means I'm not clued up to how the whole claims thing goes, hence why I'm not too sure what you can and can't claim for, obviously I'm going to go through my documents with a fine tooth comb this evening but I just wondered what the general rule was.
Thank you
 
Sorry, I went years without claiming too, then hit them big time. At the end of the day, you are insured for vet fees, so whatever tests your vet wants to do, ought to be OK, but the horse does need to be lame. You can't say "I think he's got a problem I'd like investigated", it has to be your vet who wants the tests done.
 
BigRed said:
Sorry, I went years without claiming too, then hit them big time. At the end of the day, you are insured for vet fees, so whatever tests your vet wants to do, ought to be OK, but the horse does need to be lame. You can't say "I think he's got a problem I'd like investigated", it has to be your vet who wants the tests done.
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Ok thank you, he is not lame however we have agreed along with my back lady and my farrier that he's quite quite right either, so in a way yes you could say I have taken the decision to have it investigated but they have also said this will have to be the way forward, my vet has agreed to refer him, suppose I will just have to see what the insurance company come back with.

Thank you
 
As long as you have filled out your claim forms and then passed to your vet for them to complete thier part and then send to insurance company, then there should be no problem with diagnoistics asuming you have no exclutions. Beawear that some insurnace companys put a limit of £1500 for diagnostics and other only pay 50% of MRI but this depends on the company.
If you do have exclution though and the problem turns out to be related then the insurance will not cover it.

The horse doesn't necassarly need to be lame to be investigated however if you have no diagnosis at the end of it you will have some very wide exclutions put on.
 
Thanks for that loopylucifer, yes I see what you mean, that's an example of no doubt one of the many things I'm not clued up with when it comes to making a claim.
 
I have just received the claim forms for mine to go in towards the end of august. He will likely be having scintigraphy I think, depending on their diagnosis after nerve blocks etc I'm assuming. I think as long as you are up front about everything, then thats what you pay your insurance for isn't it? :)

Mine is lame though, not noticeable in walk, and tbh, in trot, if you didn't know you may not pick it up, until you flexion test him that is! :(
 
You probably know this but you are unlikely to get permission up front to have them ALL done, they will want you to do one at a time, see results then ask permission for the next one.
 
Stencilface said:
I have just received the claim forms for mine to go in towards the end of august. He will likely be having scintigraphy I think, depending on their diagnosis after nerve blocks etc I'm assuming. I think as long as you are up front about everything, then thats what you pay your insurance for isn't it? :)

Mine is lame though, not noticeable in walk, and tbh, in trot, if you didn't know you may not pick it up, until you flexion test him that is! :(
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Thanks Stencilface, it's tricky with him because he's passed flexion tests on two seperate occassions and trotted up sound with vets and nothing has been picked up in his score sheets in the past (even had good comments) but something is not right which is causing a knock on effect to his lumbar region, I suspect it could be in his hocks so he's just doing light work until we have got to the bottom of what it could be.
 
soulfull said:
You probably know this but you are unlikely to get permission up front to have them ALL done, they will want you to do one at a time, see results then ask permission for the next one.
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Hmm, that's the thing you see, I'd rather just send him away to the clinic where they can perform everthing they need to do in the same day or 2 days if needed depending on what tests they continue to carry out as it's not going to be a simple diagnosis I don't think and I want the peace of mind that he's being looked at by people more experianced in this type of thing rather than my own vet.
 
quirky said:
Also to be noted is if you do go to a referral vets, you can get assistance with your travelling costs.
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This will depend who you are insured with and which policy you have the same as some pay all of the cost of MRI and other expensive tests and some only pay part

Kenzo said:
Hmm, that's the thing you see, I'd rather just send him away to the clinic where they can perform everthing they need to do in the same day or 2 days if needed depending on what tests they continue to carry out as it's not going to be a simple diagnosis I don't think and I want the peace of mind that he's being looked at by people more experianced in this type of thing rather than my own vet.
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This is often the case anyway but is likely to take more than 2 days if you have to have all the above. This will depend where you take your horse and how busy they are.

I would speak to referral centre you are going to and your insurance, see what you can arrange
 
I am booked into take mine in on the tuesday for lameness work up - I would guess at nerve blocks etc, and trotting up on every surface, on a circle etc. They only do the scintigraphy on a mon and weds where I am taking him (Rainbow vets in Malton) so he will have that done on weds, and will have to be in isloation for 2 days after that, as he will be considered radioactive :eek: :D

I'm hoping I can pick him up on the saturday.
 
soulfull said:
This will depend who you are insured with and which policy you have the same as some pay all of the cost of MRI and other expensive tests and some only pay part



This is often the case anyway but is likely to take more than 2 days if you have to have all the above. This will depend where you take your horse and how busy they are.

I would speak to referral centre you are going to and your insurance, see what you can arrange
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Thanks, yes I’ve already spoke to the referral centre who have talked me through the process, he’d be booked in to have the full works in either a 1 day or a 2 day time span depending on how far they have to go with the various tests.
 
genrally even if the horse has full lamness work up the insurance companys are fine with this even if it takes a day or two but for things like sintigraphy and mri you need prior agreement from the insurance. The vets will be able to clarify everything though as the deal with the insurance every day and know exactly what they need to notify and what they dont.
 
Sorry to hear he has an issue hun.

The way vie done it in the past is:

Horse not right, lame or 'something' wrong;
Vet refers to the AHT or similar;
I advised insurance company;
Filled out forms;
Horse went to the referral centre;
Usually stayed for a week, during which time the referral vet has systematically gone through each relevant test. I didn't have to ask the insurance company about each one, they paid put up to the vets fees limit as relevant to the horse. We sent a pony and then realised his vet fees cover wasn't what we thought it was, so make sure you know! In that case I told the vets to keep going until they found the issue and I paid the difference, plus the excess.

I hope it all works put okay.
 
Thanks Mrs M, he's ok, he's still in doing something,(hacking only) and certainly fine enough in himself that way but I think there could possibly be some changes going on, maybe in his hocks but also in another area which tends to show up more during school work.

I'm having another vet for another opinon as one couldn't see a problem, 2nd vet couldn't see an obvious problem, both did flexion tests which he passed, one did a lameness check, both did trot ups etc
 
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