? Wellness Plans offered by vets

[Bama Kitty Mom (GA)]

Attention vets, vet techs and pet parents who use these plans [@H.M. Victor]
What are your opinions, experiences, or recommendations regarding wellness plans such as Optimun Wellness offered by Banfield Pet Hospital (located in PetSmart stores)? Are they cost efficient? Save you money or cause you to spend more? If you had to do over, would you signup again? Pros? Cons? Thanks!

 

[H.M. Victor (GA)]

Attention vets, vet techs and pet parents who use these plans [@H.M. Victor]
What are your opinions, experiences, or recommendations regarding wellness plans such as Optimun Wellness offered by Banfield Pet Hospital (located in PetSmart stores)? Are they cost efficient? Save you money or cause you to spend more? If you had to do over, would you signup again? Pros? Cons? Thanks!

My mom deals with that stuff more than I do as the plan is in her name, but she has some errands to run this morning/afternoon, so later today I'll have her write down her thoughts about it and get back to you here as soon as possible

 

[Bama Kitty Mom (GA)]

Bump

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

The Wellness Tests (not plans) I've been offered by vets are varying degrees of analysis of blood and urine samples. Some have clever corporate names, some are common sense. I've seen groomers in a pet store but never a vet's office. I'm all for one stop shopping but have awful memories of a dentist in a K-Mart. I must be getting old.
If this is a plan like an extended warranty for a car make sure it's not a third party nightmare.
Vets have to start somewhere and unless you partner up with an existing client base it's a long and expensive climb, can't blame them one bit.

 

[H.M. Victor (GA)]

@Bama Kitty Mom (AL) Hey, just want to let you know I haven't forgotten about you and what you asked about. We've had some other stuff going on but my mom has written down most of her thoughts so as soon as she's sure there's nothing else she wants to add I'll have it here for you.

 

[H.M. Victor (GA)]

@Bama Kitty Mom (AL) Sorry it took so long to get back to you about this but here is my mom's answers to your questions:

The Optimum Wellness plan has 2 or 3 different plans you can go with, with different price ranges. My recommendation with these plans is to go to Banfield or any other veterinarian that has this plan to see which one you prefer to go with. You don't need to sign up right then, you can just find out what it all entails.

So far I've never had any bad experiences being on this plan. There are certain things that aren't included in the plan that you have to pay for out of pocket and there is also a membership fee.

I think it does save you money, example: I took Victor in to have a comprehensive exam/blood work done, and the plan paid $641.00, while I only paid $57.11 out of pocket.

The membership fee does go up occasionally due to inflation, and the corporate offices raise the prices on procedures as well when there's inflation.

If I had to do it all over and sign up again, yes, I would.

Pros: It does save you money on paying for medical procedures for your pet, but again, there are certain things that aren't included, so you'll want to go over that with your own vet.
Cons: The only downside to this plan that I've experienced is the occasional increase of the the membership fee.

If you have any other questions, I'll see if she can answer them

 

[Bama Kitty Mom (GA)]

@Bama Kitty Mom (AL) Sorry it took so long to get back to you about this but here is my mom's answers to your questions:

The Optimum Wellness plan has 2 or 3 different plans you can go with, with different price ranges. My recommendation with these plans is to go to Banfield or any other veterinarian that has this plan to see which one you prefer to go with. You don't need to sign up right then, you can just find out what it all entails.

So far I've never had any bad experiences being on this plan. There are certain things that aren't included in the plan that you have to pay for out of pocket and there is also a membership fee.

I think it does save you money, example: I took Victor in to have a comprehensive exam/blood work done, and the plan paid $641.00, while I only paid $57.11 out of pocket.

The membership fee does go up occasionally due to inflation, and the corporate offices raise the prices on procedures as well when there's inflation.

If I had to do it all over and sign up again, yes, I would.

Pros: It does save you money on paying for medical procedures for your pet, but again, there are certain things that aren't included, so you'll want to go over that with your own vet.
Cons: The only downside to this plan that I've experienced is the occasional increase of the the membership fee.

If you have any other questions, I'll see if she can answer them

Thanks, Heather and thank your mom for me. It was a great help to read her thoughts. Maybe Banfield is the only, or at least, one of the few places offering the wellness plans. I had never been offered one so I didn't know anything about it when I took Bama for the first time to Banfield last week. I have been wanting to change from his current vet and my neighbor recommended Banfield. So glad she did. I happened to remember something in a thread where you indicated Victor was on a wellness plan. That's why I tagged you in my question.

So, is the membership fee something you pay yearly? I was not clear on that. When they told me about it, I thought it was a one-time fee but maybe I misunderstood. I do like the fact that under the plan there are unlimited office visits. I went back over my last couple of years vet expenses to see how much I have paid and I could have saved some money by being on a plan. I hate when the vet sticks you with an office visit charge every time you come in even if you just came in the week before. When Bama's BG went crazy about a year ago I was taking him in about every week for them to check his BG. This was before I started home testing. They charged me $30 for followup office visit plus $17 for BG test. Every single week. This was at his old vet, of course. No discounts offered by them for anything as far as I am aware. If only I'd been using Banfield back then. . . .

Given Bama's age [12], I think I'll be going with the Active Prevention Plan. I like their office hours [open here 7a to 7p 6 days a week]. Lots of vets here don't have Saturday hours at all. Waking up on a Saturday morning with a sick kitty and not being sure it can wait until Monday makes for a nervous weekend.

Thanks again, Heather!

 

[H.M. Victor (GA)]

Thanks, Heather and thank your mom for me. It was a great help to read her thoughts. Maybe Banfield is the only, or at least, one of the few places offering the wellness plans. I had never been offered one so I didn't know anything about it when I took Bama for the first time to Banfield last week.

You're welcome, from both of us. We had never had a wellness plan before either until we started going to Banfield when we got Victor.

So, is the membership fee something you pay yearly? I was not clear on that. When they told me about it, I thought it was a one-time fee but maybe I misunderstood. I do like the fact that under the plan there are unlimited office visits.

The membership fee is a monthly payment, according to my mom, and is around $37 for her, which she has arranged with them to take directly from her checking account. The price might be different for you depending on which plan you go with and whether inflation is a factor or not. I'm not sure whether it differs at each individual Banfield, but that's how it is for us. And yeah, the unlimited office visits is really nice.

Lots of vets here don't have Saturday hours at all. Waking up on a Saturday morning with a sick kitty and not being sure it can wait until Monday makes for a nervous weekend.

I agree so much about this. There is nothing more nerve-wracking than having a sick pet and not being able to get them in to a vet if it's outside office hours.

I hope it all goes well for you and Bama