Healthy Paws | Pet Insurance Review

This will be a long one. I decided on healthy paws only one month after getting my puppy after a trial period with AKC insurance due to the glowing reviews of HP on Reddit dog communities. Sadly, upon filing my very first claim I am disappointed to say the least. I read my policy documents from start to finish - I knew exactly what was covered and what wasn’t. In March of 2021, we had to take our goldendoodle to an emergency animal hospital due to a foreign body. I submitted the initial claim on March 18, which was denied one month later due to missing documents from prior to 9/2020. I had misunderstood the request and submitted some documents without lab notes. My bad, I contacted my current veterinarian, emergency veterinarian, and previous veterinarian to request full records with lab notes. While I was able to get records from my existing vet and the emergency clinic, my previous vet had a data failure, and only had the record from his puppy exam in Nov of 2019, one month before he was enrolled in Healthy Paws. This DID include lab notes - I’ll get back to this. I also had the test results from a urinalysis and blood panel from early 2020. I uploaded these documents and resubmitted the claim on 5/7 and stated very clearly that there was a data failure and these are all the records that exist. On 6/15, I received a denial again (38 DAYS LATER) stating that records were needed from prior to 9/2020. WHAT. It took them 38 days to not even open the new documents I uploaded and deny my claim for the same reason. I called healthy paws on 6/16 asking what was wrong. The representative was kind but did not seem to understand what documents I had uploaded were - she did however advise me that she would submit the claim for appeal, and that she would make a note of the data failure of my previous veterinary office. I also re-uploaded the 11/2019 puppy exam record in case the original upload wasn’t successful. Later on, I got a response that my line-item invoice had been reviewed but they need the lab notes. Now, the format of this had the line-items on the first half of the page and then listed the vet’s lab notes under it. If they actually read it they would realize this, but I’m guessing someone just glanced at it. What, do you want me to highlight it for you? I hadn’t heard anything about my appeal, so I sent an email inquiry on 7/5 to confirm if my claim had actually been appealed. Understanding they were closed for a national holiday I expected to hear from them later in the week. Well, it’s almost a week later, and I have heard nothing. The app and website mention nothing of an appeal. It has been four months. FOUR. Their documentation says roughly 10 business days. A quick recap, my dog (who has been enrolled in healthy paws since 12/12/2019) ate a toy at a dog park in 3/2021, and they can’t approve my claim because the records from 1+ year ago no longer exist and their claims processors can’t read. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t born with a toy in his stomach, so I don’t even see why those records are relevant. Customer service seem like very kind people but the reps on the phone seem to have no authority to do anything and are completely separate from the claims process. As I understand it, it’s pointless to even have this insurance because I will never have a claim approved due to the data failure that I have no control over. Almost two years of premiums for nothing. Not to mention, because I have submitted a claim, even though it has been denied, I can never opt for a higher premium and coverage level - for the rest of the time I am a customer - which is a terrible policy and is clearly a punishment for submitting a claim. Unless something major is done to fix this, I will be leaving healthy paws, and I had never planned to do so before. I would not recommend this company to anyone, this has been an absolutely horrible experience. They completely failed to deliver when I needed them.

If you think their rates are high, just wait until you need to pay for a 5 night stay in the hospital out of pocket, then you will have perspective. They have paid the claims fast and with no bureaucracy.

My experience with Healthy Paws is Amazing!!!, my dog is my son we love him, and having Healthy Paws insurance to back us up at any moment, (and I really mean ANY MOMENT) is just a breath of fresh air. He has had around 4 surgery so far 2 of them this year, and healthy paws was able to leave up to our expectations in all of them. Great Customer Service, Great response time, and the app. is so convenient when making a claim.

This is my final post here, and please spare me your generic, fake replies. Let people judge: "Clinical signs" can be caused by different things. The fact that a dog had diarrhea before, means it should not be covered for diarrhea ever again, regardless of the underlying cause? Does that sound funny to anybody else?!! It is exactly like saying because your dog broke her leg once before you made the horrible mistake and joined "Healthy Paws", we never cover broken legs again! Good night and happy collecting premiums.

I reviewed all different companies and found Healthy Paws coverage and one annual deductible to be the best suited for my insurance needs.