The Veterinary Profession Evolves Again Through Changing Focus on Preventive Health and Wellness Plans
The increasing popularity of wellness care for pets has been a wonderful thing for both families and the veterinary medical profession. But there are plenty of doctors that simply don’t want to join a corporate practice or who just can’t integrate the existing insurance plans into their patient base. And there are literally millions of pet owners who simply don’t want to switch from their trusted, local veterinarian to a corporate practice that offers insurance or a wellness plan.
Fort Worth, Texas (PRWEB) January 6, 2004--In recent years two powerful
forces have brought rapid change to the veterinary profession: the emergence of
large regional and even national veterinary practices and the growing popularity
of so-called “wellness” or preventive health care plans for pets. An
increasingly large percentage of pet owners have either switched to a large
practice that offers a wellness plan or have reallocated their pet health
dollars from “reactive” care to an actual insurance policy offered through their
local doctor.
Left out of this equation, however, are the millions of
pet owners and small practice doctors who are either wary of corporate-style
veterinary practices or resist the hassles of managing an insurance policy
(filling out claim forms or managing a plan that likely ignores regional
differences in pet health issues). However, a company called PrePaid Vet is in
the process of making preventive veterinary care services available to not only
the holdout doctors and their clients but also to those who’ve grown frustrated
with the hassles and expense of existing wellness and insurance
programs.
PrePaid Vet enables smaller veterinary practices to offer
clients wellness plans that beat existing preventive care and insurance products
on the number and type of services covered and on price. How? Unlike existing
plans that offer “one size fits all” pricing structures and coverage menus,
PrePaid Vet allows participating doctors to design their own plan with their own
pricing and service packages.
“We talked to countless veterinarians when
designing PrePaid Vet,” said General Partner Jay VanZandt. “Over and over
doctors reminded us that they need to be able to offer service and fee menus
that reflect regional pet health issues and local economic factors. So that’s
what we designed.”
PrePaid Vet works with participating doctors to help
them design their own wellness plan. Doctors can modify existing wellness plan
templates or develop one from scratch. PrePaid Vet then builds a
fully-functioning website and marketing package for the practice and supports
the staff and doctors with integrating the new offering into their practice.
“The increasing popularity of wellness care for pets has been a
wonderful thing for both families and the veterinary medical profession,” said
Dr. Johnny M. Todd, President of the Pet Trust Group veterinary practices in
Fort Worth, Texas. “But there are plenty of doctors that simply don’t want to
join a corporate practice or who just can’t integrate the existing insurance
plans into their patient base. And there are literally millions of pet owners
who simply don’t want to switch from their trusted, local veterinarian to a
corporate practice that offers insurance or a wellness plan.”
The concept
of preventive or wellness care for pets focuses on changing traditional owner
behavior. Typically, pet owners seek veterinary care only in reaction to an
emergency or when a vaccination is needed. The growing acceptance of wellness
care has helped pet owners by keeping pets healthy in a proactive way, enabling
pets to stay healthier and happier for dramatically longer lives.
“Wellness plans remove the fear of ‘spending too
much’ on a pet’s health,” says Dr. Todd. “Because clients know in advance what
type of a care their pet needs to stay healthy and how much it will cost ~ and
when they see the tremendous cost savings they can access by purchasing
preventive services as a package, they almost always decide to become wellness
clients.”
Jennifer Stout, the Practice Manager of Town & Country
Animal Clinic in Ft. Worth, Texas, says: “PrePaid Vet has given us a very
professional marketing suite that enables us to explain the health benefits and
cost savings of wellness care to our clients ~ especially those that only come
in when there’s a problem.” Best of all, says, Stout, the doctors in her
practice were able to design their menu of services and pricing plan based
strictly on their clients needs ~ not based on national data.
“We looked
into offering something like this before,” says Dr. Todd. “But joining a
national, corporate practice would have really distressed our clients. And we
knew our clients would have no interest at all in the existing insurance plans,
which require patients to pay full price and deal with filling out forms and
fighting for reimbursement. Those plans just make getting health care for a pet
an antagonist experience, which is not at all what we want.”
“We worked
with PrePaid Vet to develop our plan offerings and pricing and after that, they
handled everything, financial reporting, billing, technical support and customer
service,” says Stout. “That lets us focus on teaching our clients about pet
health and providing veterinary services. It’s added absolutely no additional
work or hassle on our end and it’s enabled us to convert many of our periphery
clients into regular clients.”
PrePaid Vet was developed and initially
rolled-out in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area but is now establishing partnerships all
over the country.
“We know that most veterinarians have been under
pressure to either join a national practice or offer an insurance plan that they
know isn’t right for their clients,” says Van Zandt. “Veterinarians are thanking
us for giving them the ability to offer wellness care that makes sense for their
practice and their clients while maintaining the unique community recognition
and identity that they’ve worked so hard to establish.”
Contact General
Partner Jay Van Zandt at 817-483-4422 or e-mail protected from spam bots for
access to participating veterinarians and patients or for more information about
PrePaidVet.
Quick Facts:
There are presently more than 61 million dogs
and 69 million cats in the U.S. More than 30 specifies of birds are commonly
kept as pets in the United States. More than 60 percent of U.S. households (58.2
million) own a cat or dog. More than 91 percent of pet owners take their dogs
and cats to the veterinarian for vaccination and preventive care. There are more
than 30,000 small animal veterinarians and more than 15,000 small animal
veterinary practices in the United States. Americans spend more than $30 BILLION
per year on their pets, most of this going toward veterinary
care.
Sources: the American Veterinary Medical Association and the
American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/1/prweb97009.htm