Nationwide | Pet Insurance Review

I have read other reviews, which tend to be negative. I fortunately have had a wonderful experience with VPI/Nationwide. I decided to get insurance for my cat after he had multiple surgeries to remove foreign bodies (he would eat anything he could). One of the swallowed items almost proved fatal. After cat proofing my house, there have been no more foreign body ingestion but unfortunately, Elliot suddenly developed acute cardiomyopathy. He was only given a year to live on the treatment prescribed. Between his hospitalization to stabilize him with draining his collapsed lung and proper meds, the bills were almost 3000 dollars. Nationwide has reimbursed almost 100%. I am grateful for this, ones less stressor to have do deal with. Grateful I can put my energy into taking care of Elliot instead of having to fight City Hall. I love Nationwide.

I was a customer with VIP insurance for years. Then, Nationwide took it over. They are terrible. They deny claims on the smallest pretext. For my latest claim, they denied coverage for a fecal exam that was necessary to determine why my dog had diarrhea. They claimed that "wellness" procedures are not covered under the policy. When I explained to them that this procedure was not done as part of a routine exam but was necessary to determine why he was sick, they would not budge. It's the most rediculous reasoning I've ever heard from an insurance company -- and I used to work for one. The total bill was $260, of which they paid $48. In the meantime, my premiums are over $900 a year. DON'T BUY THIS INSURANCE! You'd be better off saving money in an interest-bearing account and using it when your pet gets sick.

Very unsatisfied with the responses to submitted claims. Everything we submit request additional information or medical records. Everything is on a medical receipt and includes an itemized receipt. We have no "additional" medical information, as Hitchcock is a rescue dog that we adopted in October 2016. Each and every bit of medical records we have have been submitted to you. We are seriously reevaluating whether the cost of this insurance is worth the cost. They sell themselves to us, then all we get for our money are more requests for more information. Trust me, we do not hold back any information and if the expenses come from our vets office and are itemized, they are legit. My husband and I both work at major teaching institutions and you can trust that we have discussed this issue with many colleagues who agree that our experience has been very negative. We have carried Nationwide Pet Insurance for several years. We are not happy with the constant review of each and every charges and the constant request for additional information. You do not feel as if a partner in the care of our family pet, but an adversary. Our claims are thorough and complete and all requests have been met with information, yet we are still barraged with additional requests. Thank you for your time. We do hope that this situation is remedied in the very near future. If not, we may be partnering with someone else that does not make us feel as adversarial. At this point we would not recommend Nationwide Pet Insurance services and will share that opinion at every opportunity.

I never insured any other pet before this dog, so I have had one insured dog for 10 years. He was just diagnosed with Cushing's disease and Nationwide has an $800.00 annual cap on this disease. We spent more than that just getting to the diagnoses. Now there is zero coverage for any medication or actual treatment of this disease. I am devastated to say the least. If I manage his disease well, he has the potential for many good years ahead. But I've never had a dog with a chronic condition before and here I am in that very position with pet insurance for the first time and I WON'T BE REIMBURSED FOR MOST OF HIS TREATMENT/NEEDS! The company likes to tout that the benefits renew each calendar year but the amount of coverage for his illness is actually less than what the plan will cost me for the year, much less the deductible so I am not better off with the insurance unless he gets sick or injured with something different. The whole reason I insured him in the first place was so I wouldn't have to be paying out of pocket for really big expenses if they happened, and now that is exactly what I'm stuck doing. Of course he now has a pre-existing condition and I am stuck with a company that has completely let us down.

Don't get VPI FOR SURE!!!! We had a German Shepherd who was 100% healthy when we got her as a puppy....put her on the highest plan possible and 4 months later ended up getting her fixed. The day after the surgery she all the sudden stopped urinating and was severely blocked in the bladder, moving up into the kidneys. Took her back to the vet, of course, /'f they sent us straight down to GCVS (a specialty hospital that people from all over the US come to for disease, cancer, etc). Luckily it's 45 min from our home, but talk about expensive!!!! Her first 4 days in the hospital cost $4500...including another surgery to relieve blockage. All 3 specialists said that it was NOT caused from the surgery and is so rare that would be normal to be undetected until it actually hit the point she was at. But VPI claimed it was "pre-existing" and wouldn't cover even a single penny! Even after submitting proof of tests and testimonials from all specialtists saying it was not pre-existing...still, not one penny! At this point it was too late to change insurance companies bcuz then it really would be pre-existing. Therefore...after 6 yrs of medical treatment and many hospital stays and surgeries, we've spent over $30,0000 on our dog. Would do it again and again in a heartbeat bcuz she's one of the family BUT ridiculous that we had insurance company that wouldn't lift a finger to help. At all. Never has. By the way VPI...if not being able to urinate was considered pre-existing, common sense has it that she wouldn't have lived. Really?? Didn't know a dog could go 4 months (from the time we signed up with VPI) without peeing...ridiculous excuse if u ask ME! Sadly, we lost our Dakota 3 months ago after battling this rare disease! She died of kidney failure...which the vet agrees they could've possibly found a cure if insurance would've helped and instead used the money out of pocket to use towards research and exotic meds to try. Hmmmm. Prettt sad if u ask me. So now we just got another new puppy (Bentley) who is a 2 month old German Shepherd as well...and as I search for new plans and ask vets for recommendations, almost 100% of them have referred me TO Healthy Paws Insurance... so wish me Luck this time. And I sure hope Bentley is in good hands with them bcuz Poor Dakota was certainly NOT by using VPI. NEVER AGAIN!!!!