To claim or not to claim...

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Spookywood

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Hi All
A quick what would you do question...

I have had the vet out to my new horse due to her eye being swollen and closed and a having restricted pupil. General thoughts by the vet was that she has most likely 'bumped' it when getting to know her new herd with the worst case being Uveitis, potentially recurring, although no damage (previous or new) could be seen. After a course of anti-inflammatory's and some steriod cream it has cleared up.

My question is do I claim for the vet's cost with my insurance? Total claim after the excess would be £63. Concerned if I claim they will exclude her eyes from the policy :(

Any thoughts?
 
Similar happened to a pony of mine & bill came to £50 so I didn't bother.

3yrs later same pony got a tumour in the same eye. Insurance refused to pay anything because of the previous eye treatment even though it was completely unrelated (which the vet also told them). Resulted in me promptly telling the said company to kindly stick their policy into something you can imagine & had a pony whos eye shrivelled up into its socket as I couldn't afford the £1000 to have it removed :( (must add that I checked with the vet & removal would have been for cosmetic reasons anyway) she did live another 2yrs happily with 1 eye until she succumbed to something unrelated.
 
Oh forgot to say they refused to pay because they said I hadn't told them about the previous treatment. & it was a company I then discovered people stayed well away from (Elephants & Llamas :D )
 
To be honest i wouldn't. If anything happens to that eye in the future the insurance will ask for full history of the horse and it will be on thermd anyway. My boy got a swollen eye from being silly but it cleared up on its own. If it's down as a bump on your vet notes then she should still be covered. If you claim then the affected eye will be excluded.
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To be honest i wouldn't claim but inform them of the bump. If anything happens to that eye in the future the insurance will ask for full history of the horse and it will be on the vet notes anyway. My boy got a swollen eye from being silly but it cleared up on its own. If it's down as a bump on your vet notes then she should still be covered. If you claim then the affected eye will be excluded.

My mare has got a systolic heart murmur but doesnt affect her but insurance have excluded anything to do with her heart.
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Thats terrible Tinap555. It makes me mad that insurance companies will do anything to wriggle out of paying out, especially when it comes to your horses well being. Thats why we blooming well take the insurance out! Grrr.

After reading the negative reviews of E&L I opted to stay clear and went for KBIS instead. I called them the day after the vet came out to tell them that the vet had been out and they were very nice and said I could wait and see how much the bill is before I decide if it's worth making a claim. Just not sure if it is :S
 
Thanks Slightlyconfused. Thats what my YO says. But she says may as well claim for everything as they will just look at the notes and exclude it anyway. She also said that they have to pay out for a year from the first visit so if it is the worst case and turns out to be recurrent uveitis, I will be covered for the year and if not I can appeal any exclusions once a year of it being clear has passed? Although I have ticked the treatment finished box on the form, will this stop me being able to claim again if it is recurrent? I think I'm slightly confused!!
 
slightlyconfused said:
To be honest i wouldn't claim but inform them of the bump. If anything happens to that eye in the future the insurance will ask for full history of the horse and it will be on the vet notes anyway. My boy got a swollen eye from being silly but it cleared up on its own. If it's down as a bump on your vet notes then she should still be covered. If you claim then the affected eye will be excluded.

My mare has got a systolic heart murmur but doesnt affect her but insurance have excluded anything to do with her heart.
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I agree with this, I wouldn't bother claiming but I would certainly let them know about it.
 
What is your excess? On my insurance, it wouldn't be worth claiming for that because my excess is £120.

Whether or not they pay up depends on what the vet writes the treatment up as. I was advised to claim for our lameness investigations by the vet, because I'll never get another lameness work up out of NFU again.
 
My excess is £135, so total bill was £198, leaving £63 after the excess. This excludes the final visit which I assume I will get on next months statement, which will be another £50 odd. Not sure what the vet will write it up as. It was a differenct vet who came to do the final check and she was banging on about uveitis and when I mentioned that the original vet that saw her had said it was most likely a bump she said that yeah it would be the same meds so could be that too. Just at a complete loss as to what is the best thing to do. Don't want what happened to Tinap555 happen to me and something completed unrelated happening to her eye and they wont pay out.
 
Spookywood said:
Thats what my YO says. But she says may as well claim for everything as they will just look at the notes and exclude it anyway.
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I agree with YO, not much point not claiming, you may as well have the money as not, since they will have it in the notes and claim for it or not they will probably exclude it anyway. (And if you hadnt told them and they found out later they would likely not pay the claim.) So why not claim what you are entitled to, thats why you pay for the coverage :).
 
When my horse kept choking last summer I rang KBIS and they said you might as well claim for everything! In the end it came to about £400 so it was worth it.
 
If I were you yes I would claim. I had the same symptoms for my horse and had the vet out numerous times, each time conjunctivitis was diagnosed. I didn't claim and didn't tell the insurance as each time he came out it was about £50. When eventually they did diagnose Uvetits and I tried to claim they had my notes and wouldn't pay out.
 
Thanks everyone. Think I'm going to claim and see what happens with regards to any exclusions. At least this way they cant say I didn't tell them! Fingers crossed it's just a one off and I wont need to claim again anyway :)
 
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