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Does West Midland Referrals extend credit?
Unfortunately we are not able to extend credit. Our fees are exceptionally competitive, and we can only keep them that way by requesting payment at the time of treatment. If you will have difficulty settling your account at the time of surgery, please raise this with reception and with the admitting vet before the procedure. We will try our best to find a way of accommodating your needs, but any negotiation on payment or price MUST be in advance of the procedure, not afterwards.
Can you claim directly from my insurer?
We can accept payment from your insurer and will offer direct claims where we can, as we understand the financial burden of paying upfront for your pet’s surgery.
We require advance notice to submit a pre-authorisation (speak to your insurer to confirm your policy details). As such, we ask that you inform our team in advance if you wish for us to make a direct claim. For emergency and out of hours procedures, this may not always be possible, and we will ask you to settle your outstanding balance promptly.
Most insurers have a minimum limit for pre-authorisation and for this reason we ask for payment for sums under £300. We can still submit these claims to your insurer, and we do not charge additional administration fees, we just ask that you provide any necessary claim forms or links to allow us to do this in a timely manner.
If we agree to claim directly from your insurer, we will calculate any anticipated deductions and ask for this figure on admission. This can include your excess and co-pay, inner limits on your policy and any other predicted shortfall. This figure will be based on the information provided by your insurer and will not take into account claims submitted after we speak to them. It also relies on them relaying your policy details to us accurately. Please understand that your policy is a contract between you and your insurer, and we will only be privy to the information you both disclose.
You may have already paid an excess at your Primary Care practice; however we require evidence of this from your insurer. If no claims have been submitted when we carry out our policy check or pre-authorisation, your excess has not yet been paid to them and may then be deducted for our claim. Due to this, we may ask you to pay your excess on admission to ensure we do not have to waste time chasing owners for the excess once the claim is settled. The excess will always be deducted from the first claim received by your insurer, and we promise to reimburse you promptly if your excess or any other anticipated shortfall isn’t deducted from our claim.
If we are dubious about your claim being covered for any reason, we will refuse to do a direct claim and will need to take payment on admission. We will always inform you of our decision before your appointment.
Even if we refuse to claim directly from your insurer, we do not know what the claim outcome will be, and we can still submit a claim to reimburse you.
We expect claims to be settled within 30 days and rely on your co-operation with your insurer to avoid delays. For any claim where your insurer declines to pay for all or part of the outstanding balance, you will be liable to settle your account within 30 days of the claim being sent. For more information, please see our terms and conditions.
