Vet charging for referral

JustMeThen

JustMeThen

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My mare had colic in April and the vet advised sending her up to a vet clinic, where she stayed two nights but was fine. My vet said she was being really over-cautious sending her there but as she advised it, I couldn't do otherwise

I was going to claim on my insurance but as the clinic bill was only 500 - I thought it would be more like 1500 - I thought best to put it on credit card and not claim because I didn't want colic ruled out in future.

My bill's just come from my vets and they're charging me 75 to refer her to the clinic! I rang to say that was quite pricey for picking up the phone and they said standard charge, paperwork, blah blah but it seems a huge charge, especially when I don't think the other vets at the practice would have referred her. Has anyone else had to pay a similar charge?

Thank you.
 
You have invalidated your insurance by not telling them about the colic so the £75 would be the least of my worries!
 
I imagine its not just a phone call, the referring vets will be in contact with the hospital during the stay and will receive a report back. An early referral can often mean the difference between saving a horse and losing it so I would be grateful your vet takes this approach, and the main thing is your mare is fine.
The bad news is that I am afraid colic will be ruled out for the future, insurance companies now ask for a full veterinary history and as this colic will flag up any future colic will be excluded. :(
 
eleanor79 said:
I was going to claim on my insurance but as the clinic bill was only 500 - I thought it would be more like 1500 - I thought best to put it on credit card and not claim because I didn't want colic ruled out in future.
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By not informing your insurance company of a major issue like colic you may have invalidated your insurance. You will have eliminated colic from your cover in the future anyway as when the company requests medical history from your vet it will all come to light. They may cancel your cover & that will cause you lots of problems. Insurance companies normally ask if you have ever been refused cover & you will have. You may find difficulty getting another company to insure you.

I think best advice would be for you to put the treatment through your insurance company at least then you wil have informed them of it. You will get an exclusion regarding colic but at least you will remain covered for other things.
 
MurphysMinder said:
I imagine its not just a phone call, the referring vets will be in contact with the hospital during the stay and will receive a report back. An early referral can often mean the difference between saving a horse and losing it so I would be grateful your vet takes this approach, and the main thing is your mare is fine.
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This.
the referral will be because the vet hospital has the equipment/specialist staff to deal with the condition. Your own vet will still be involved as they will be giving information on the horse, it's history etc etc.
In the case of a couple of my horses the 'paperwork' would have included details of allergies and reactions to certain types of feed and medicines - rather vital info I think.
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
By not informing your insurance company of a major issue like colic you may have invalidated your insurance. You will have eliminated colic from your cover in the future anyway as when the company requests medical history from your vet it will all come to light. They may cancel your cover & that will cause you lots of problems. Insurance companies normally ask if you have ever been refused cover & you will have. You may find difficulty getting another company to insure you.

I think best advice would be for you to put the treatment through your insurance company at least then you wil have informed them of it. You will get an exclusion regarding colic but at least you will remain covered for other things.
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Agree. Most insurance companies will re include colic after 12 months without an episode. Mine did, got my vet to write them a letter to state my horse had been colic free for 1yr and insurance company lifted the exclusion.
 
The"referral" will involve producing full medical history report, liaising with the clinic, and follow up with the discharge notification, all of which are time consuming for the vet.
 
I'd say it varies from practice to practice.

When mine had to be referred elsewhere for an MRI (this was before the RVC had theirs installed) I was not charged for referral.

Nor was I charged for my vet getting the results faxed and meeting with me to go through them in detail and come up with a treatment plan.

Echo what has been said about insurance. The insurance company would go back to the vet for history if it recurred and even if you don't claim on it now, you will have to declare at time of renewal.
 
Even when you declare the colic that occured in April to your insurers, they are entitled to refuse to pay the vets fees retrospectively as you did not inform them at the time.

It doesn't ever pay to be 'clever' with insurance companies, they will find you out.
 
I am lucky enough to be with a massive practice but part of the reason for that is to avoid referrals fees. With regards to the insurance company, you must tell them, if you ever claim for it in the future they will dig like crazy to find anything and the vets are obliged to give them a full vet history which will include that information. I know this because NFU demanded a copy of my horse's vacc records, they didn't tell me why but it didn't take a genius to work out they phoned up all the vets that had seen him in the past to ask if he'd ever been lame. Thankfully for me he hadn't.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Even when you declare the colic that occured in April to your insurers, they are entitled to refuse to pay the vets fees retrospectively as you did not inform them at the time.

It doesn't ever pay to be 'clever' with insurance companies, they will find you out.
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I wasn't trying to be 'clever', just trying to do what I thought best in the situation.
 
Just had my horse referred to another practice and wasn't charged BUT they are now his first opinion vet from now on as my vet can't treat him. I do agree there is no point not informing them but you don't have to claim either. I had vet out for a horse with an allergic reaction, bill was just over excess so haven't claimed but insurance will be informed.
 
eleanor79 said:
I wasn't trying to be 'clever', just trying to do what I thought best in the situation.
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I'm afraid that you have to play a completely straight bat at all times with insurance companies.

Many of us are wondering if equine insurance, particularly for vets fees, is worth the hassle as there are so many ways which a claim may be refused.
 
I have never been charged for a referral for dogs, horses or even myself for private healthcare, it amounts to sending off a bit of paperwork and seems like a bit of a rip off to me. Sometimes you don't even need a referral to get an appointment at a clinic and can call in yourself, did the vet even mention the charge upfront or only tell you after that she was charging for hours of work for making a phone call?
 
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No, there was no mention of any referral fee, she just said she was going to ring them and there was no mention of any charge afterwards, it was just there on the bill. There was also a £10 'client surcharge' because I was late paying the bill - even though that was the first one they'd sent me!
 
And there wasn't any thought in my head of playing the insurers or not playing it straight; I never thought it was an issue. I thought it was just like a car, as in if there's damage and you sort it out yourself, you don't lose your no-claims bonus but I stand corrected.
 
eleanor79 said:
And there wasn't any thought in my head of playing the insurers or not playing it straight; I never thought it was an issue. I thought it was just like a car, as in if there's damage and you sort it out yourself, you don't lose your no-claims bonus but I stand corrected.
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And also with car insurance, if you don't comply with all of the small print when you do make a claim, it will be refused because you didn't declare all material facts. With the vast majority of vehicle insurers, you must inform them of all RTCs and incidents involving a third party.

It's been said before and it is so true. Insurers exist to make a profit, so must try to minimise what they pay out. As an example, when my car was stolen I had to prove that my licence was clean (as declared at renewal) and that I had proof that it had been serviced in accordance with the manufacturer's schedule, never mind that I had both sets of keys for it. With the exception of the keys, this had no bearing on the theft - it was simply an attempt to ensure that I had complied with all the small print (which I had, hence the claim was paid with no further fuss).
 
It's one of those things that varies. I'd normally expect the referral charge to be applied by the practice the horse is being sent to but every practice is different and if it's this particular ones policy to charge that fee then they won't change it. By the way when you make any claims in the future your insurance will request a full history. If they see the colic on there and you haven't claimed they'll still exclude it so you may as well have the money if they'll give it you. If this is a one off you may even be able to get any exclusions they do place lifted in the future if there are no further colic episodes (I was given that option with a previous horse... he then colicked again within a few weeks of them saying that!)
 
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