Nationwide | Pet Insurance Review

Tricky insurance better to read the policy first!!! They don’t pay back for spay or neuter. Something important for dogs.

I have been a Nationwide pet insurance customer for 6 years and overall had a good experience with claims and reimbursements, even through my dog being diagnosed with a heart condition. That changed this fall when I received a letter stating I needed to update my payment information by a certain deadline, which I did. However, when I logged on to submit a claim recently, my policy had expired. After speaking with Nationwide's customer service team, they admitted that although I provided updated payment information on time, their system failed to take the payment automatically. I was never informed that I needed to call them to run the payment or that my policy had expired. I asked for my policy to be reinstated since I did everything I was asked, but neither Octavia with customer service nor Ken the sales agent was willing to re-enroll me at the previous rate I have been paying faithfully for years. Needless to say, I am beyond frustrated that Nationwide has dropped me and I am left with no coverage for my beloved senior dog.

While this insurance isn't horrible, there are better options out there. Claims are paid pretty quickly however the option to pay the vet directly would be preferred. In addition, the plans that are based on a certain condition (the one I have had for 10 years) has not had an increase in benefit amount despite the annual premiums continuing to go up every year. An example is, In todays vet medicine a CT scan all in will range from $3000 - $3500 dollars in my market and the plan only pays up to $995 a year assuming you haven't already had other imaging done for your pet. They cap out the diagnosis in addition to the benefit type. I would much rather have a plan that pays 70% - 90% directly to the provider.

When I submitted an itemized invoice from the vet, they requested medical records going back several months. When I provided all the medical records, after waiting more than 30 days, they sent me a letter stating that they needed more time to review the claim.

RUN! I have a discounted premium rate thru my employer and they screwed me TWICE. You know it's bad (yesterday) when you fire them even with a crazy discounted premium!