Trupanion | Pet Insurance Review

I’ve had Trupanion for a decade on my dog Luca - specifically in preparation for any big medical choices, which no pup parent wants to base on financial constraints. Luckily, for the majority of Luca’s life, he has been healthy and coverage of his limited issues has been as expected. However, now that my senior fur guy is fighting cancer and I am faced with the costly and high stakes medical choices which I thought this policy would prepare me for … I have had one bad experience after another. Repeatedly, I have spoken to Trupanion representatives who either couldn’t help me understand what would be covered, or strongly misled me about what would be covered (only to later say it wasn’t a “legal guarantee” of coverage), and I have received pre-approval determinations that don’t match the coverage determinations of those same exact line items on the resulting invoice claimed. With $15-20k in medical costs on the line with this sarcoma claim alone, its been a nightmare to navigate - re: inability to financially plan ahead accurately, hundreds-thousands in unexpected costs due to lack of coverage, burden of time spent following up with them/doing appeals, etc. As a painful cherry on top, when interacting with some representatives, it increasingly feels like a classic insurance power struggle instead of the ”team” or “compassionate support” Trupanion brands itself as providing. Example: Today, when I inquired about why anesthesia for his radiation treatments (which my pre-approval covered) was not fully covered in the resulting claim determination, I was told by the representative that she would find out why and then call me back. Instead, when she came to understand that the lesser coverage was granted on the claim because it was now being seen as 50% exam (?!), she chose not call me back to give me the answer as she had committed to doing, and instead, called my dog’s oncology office to ask them questions that supported the reduced coverage determination first. Only after doing so, did she call me back - to both provide me the reasoning for the reduced claim determination (which is what I called for), and also to allege that she “already confirmed it was an exam” with my dog’s oncology office herself. I discontinued our conversation at that point and I called my dog’s oncologist myself immediately. The oncology office confirmed that Luca’s daily anesthesia did NOT include any examination and therefore Trupanion should NOT deem it such to avoid rightful coverage (by pro-rating the anesthesia 50%). Whatever information the Trupanion representative provided to my dog’s oncology office in her own call to them was obviously not sufficient to accurately represent the claim being discussed. After all, as the Dr. herself pointed out to me on our call, Trupanion is already not covering any of the $1275 itemized out separately for *specifically the weekly exams* (which would make this amount to double charging me), AND the Trupanion proposed 50% pro-ration is clearly inaccurate given that daily time with the anesthesiologist is 0% spent being examined and 100% spent receiving anesthesia for the sarcoma radiation treatment. Edited to add: I spoke to a Trupanion supervisor today, who described Monday’s representative’s choice to call my dog’s oncologist (instead of calling me back with the information I requested): “good intentions”, to “help” me, and “going above and beyond for the member”, “since you were so upset about it”. Yet — Trupanion made a claim determination that deviated from the pre-approval without soliciting any of that information (either about the line item verbiage or the percentage of pro-ration), and here was a representative suddenly trying to “help” in ways that were not only not solicited, or welcomed, or communicated, but also, clearly, not at all helpful. This supervisor’s explanation for why that representative didn’t just call me back with the answer to my question about the claim coverage like she said she would? “You two have different communication styles.” Sigh. I am now working with my dog’s oncology office directly to obtain revised invoices and additional notes to clarify that his daily radiation is not 50% exam — just so I can receive the correct level of coverage I have so religiously paid for.

This company has been great in helping us with our dog Mia. She had an accident in her early years and tore her meniscus, they helped with that through the whole process. Now she is older and has leukemia and is going through treatments and their customer service has been excellent and having coverage for this takes some pressure off going through such a sad time with our pet. I don’t ever regret having this insurance. Thank you Trupanion!

You've treated me fairly and I appreciate that. Your customer service is excellent.

When my Xolo was suddenly hospitalized last week, I never had to worry about the cost of procedures or tests that skipping would lower the likelihood of him coming home. To be able to take the financial stress out of an already stressful emergency situation is no small thing and Trupanion provided that. I didn't have to worry about how I was going to pay for his growing bills or ever weigh the value of his life or fear reaching a limit of how much I could spend to save him. He's back home with us and I couldn't be more grateful to Trupanion for the role they played in that. We've had an extraordinarily bad year with this particular boy's health after 8 years of being healthy as a horse and Trupanion has been there to help us every step of the way. It's worth every penny every month knowing we've got this kind of safety net even if we never have to use it for a dog.

When I called to set up an insurance policy for our new puppy the customer service agent I spoke to made the process simple and pleasant.