Pet owners with pet insurance visit their veterinarian more often than uninsured pet owners, according to findings from a recent Nationwide study involving roughly 10 million pets served by 2,000 veterinary clinics across the U.S.
This means, practices with more insured clients are empowered to perform the best veterinary medicine possible because clients have the necessary resources to follow through with optimal recommendations and treatment plans. As a result, pet insurance generates more practice revenue.
Key Study Findings
- Insured dog owners visited their veterinarian 73% more often, resulting in 4.17 annual visits per insured dog versus 2.41 annual visits per uninsured dog.
- Insured cat owners visited their veterinarian 43% more often, resulting in 2.54 annual visits per insured cat versus 1.77 annual visits per uninsured cat.
- Insured dogs were 51% more likely to receive surgical treatment, and 17% more was spent on those procedures.
- Insured cats were 20% more likely to receive surgical treatment, and 38% more was spent on those procedures.
- Overall, clinic revenue was 92% higher for insured dogs and 76% higher for insured cats.
Pet Insurance Increases Client Retention for Practices
When pet owners must rely on savings accounts, credit cards, or financial assistance for veterinary care, they naturally shop around for affordable care. When pet owners have the financial resources they need with pet insurance, they generally forego shopping around and stay with the clinic they know and trust.
The Nationwide study found that after three years, 81% of insured dogs were at the same clinic, compared to 46% for uninsured dogs, and 69% of insured cats were at the same clinic, compared to 33% for uninsured cats.
The AVMA Encourages Pet Owner Education About Pet Insurance
For the reasons outlined above, the AVMA endorses pet insurance and “encourages veterinary healthcare teams to proactively educate their clients” about pet insurance as “an important approach for the veterinary profession to continue to provide high quality veterinary services.”
The challenge: Busy veterinary teams have little time to educate pet owners about the benefits of pet insurance—or they may not want to chat about pet insurance.
That’s why we created our free Pet Insurance Education Kit with tools and resources to save practices time educating pet owners and answering their questions about pet insurance without having to be a pet insurance expert.
Available for a limited time, our kit includes:
- An educational handout—Pet Insurance: Synopsis of a ClientEd Handout—that you can print or email.
- An infographic highlighting the value of pet insurance and how it works.
- Two social media images that you can post on Facebook to further remind pet owners about the importance of pet insurance.
- An in-clinic poster encouraging pet owners to visit petinsuranceinfo.com to learn more and make informed decisions.
