Linda said:
....They don't cover pre-existing conditions, so in my case Dudley had Gastro last year I want to know if he ever gets it again does that mean it is not covered...
I called my Vet and they said they will request a complete medical history on both boys. I asked how the heck can they deny you Gastro a dog will obviously get that more than once in their life. When I called the Insurance they said something about not covering anything that the dog has had previously.....
Petcare has temporary exclusions and permanent exclusions. when i first got zack and signed up for Petcare, zack had bloody diarrhea during the 30 day waiting period. He also had a small growth on his face. The vet noted these when i took him for his initial exam. She would not have noticed the skin growth but i asked her about it, so then it was in his chart. it was tiny and soon went away.
Three weeks after i got zack, still during the 30 day waiting period where there is no coverage, i took him to the ER for vomiting where the vet took an abdominal xray and mistakenly wrote in his chart that he had an enlarged heart. He said that there was a foreign body showing in the stomach on the xray so i made a claim on the insurance because accidents are covered during the first 30 days. I sent the records from the hospital. i forgot all about the enlarged heart notation becaue the next day the doctor had called and said there was nothing wrong with the heart--after the radiologist had looked at the xrays and said the heart looked normal.
I got a revised copy of my policy under the heading Excluded From Coverage, it said "Bloody Diarrhea as of January 30, 2006 and Associated Conditions--Temporary," and "Growth under Right Eye and Associated Conditions--Temporary." and it said "Enlarged Heart and Associated Conditions--Permanent."
There was a cover letter that says "Please note that any temporary exclusions placed on your policy are eligible for review, upon your request, after a period of one year from your effective date of coverage."
The word 'temporary' was in bold type. Not to be confused with "permanent' exclusions.
So, as of January 30 it will be a year since i took him to the vet for a complete exam, and diarrhea and skin growth were noted in his chart. I will be contacting Petcare and asking them to remove the two temporary exclusions after January 30. I guess i just take him for a yearly exam and send them the records that he's normal. I'll let you know.
I had a hard time at first getting them to understand the 'enlarged heart' was a mistake. At first when i got them a letter from the radiologist, which was ambiguous, they changed the permanent exclusion into a temporary one. I wrote a letter to their underwriting supervisor or administrator, expressing frustration that Petcare was not seeing that the diagnosis had been an error, and after that they interviewed the radiologist and removed the exclusion completely.