Trupanion | Pet Insurance Review

Our Jack developed IVDD out of the blue. Nothing was so frightening to me when one day Jack is fine and the next day he cannot walk. Scared of the diagnosis, then scared of the cost. I'm so glad I had Trupanion. When I did the online chat it was within seconds that someone was on the line, answering question after question for me, reconfirming that Jack's cost would be covered and also letting me know what would not be covered. I cannot tell them enough how much I appreciate all their help during my tail spin when our "Jack dog" got IVDD and I was a mess. His bills are over $8,000 and he is covered 90%, and the reimbursements are on their way and all this began, Monday, September 21, 2021 and it is now Monday, September 27, 2021. We still have a long road to go but thank goodness Trupanion is by our side. I cannot say enough good things. What a blessing Trupanion is.

Lucy is still recovering from her injury. She is a high energy, super athletic dog, and having a broken toe at nine months really put a crimp on her style. It was the LAST thing we expected to happen. And then the absolute worst thing was that she developed a serious complication of additional sores on her foot after the bandage was applied that became infected, despite all our best efforts. We went through this about six years ago when our cat bit our Great Dane. He became septic and spent a week in the hospital and months recovering. So Lucy's infection caused a lot of stress and worry. And she has ended up having to have one of her other toes amputated and lost part of her pad. We are doing lots of bandage changes and antibiotics, and so far, looks like we have the infection under control and she is on the mend. So Trupanion was a life saver, especially because we did not have to worry about getting Lucy the right treatment at the right time. And the claims process is so, so easy which was really important since we were so, so stressed. Thank you!! Highly recommend.

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!

Actually it was Melissa who helped me setup my account. Please be sure she gets the credit for this survey. She did an awesome job answering my questions & informing me of how this insurance works, coverage, etc