The ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program Helps Educate Pet Owners with Interactive Cost of Care Wheel

To help educate consumers and new pet owners about the costs associated with adding a dog or cat to the home, the ASPCA® Pet Health Insurance program has developed a “Cost of Care Wheel” available to veterinary hospitals. The interactive tool can be viewed and ordered at no cost via the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance online Veterinary Resource Center, which also houses a robust library of content dedicated to veterinary staff and clients.

“The ‘Cost of Care Wheel’ can be used to help facilitate the important conversation of finances, often considered an uncomfortable topic to veterinarians, whose main focus is to provide the very best care for the animal,” said Gina Fortunato, AVP of Veterinary Services, Crum & Forster Pet Insurance Group™, providers of ASPCA® Pet Health Insurance.

The “Cost of Care Wheel” contains information based on actual claims data for accident, illness and preventive care invoices submitted during a five-year timeframe for nine popular dog breeds and five cat breeds. The wheel can be rotated to show data for each breed, evaluated in four different ways:

• The average cost of care per year for the selected breed
• The average cost of care for the pet at three life stages: in the first year of life, as an adult and as a senior pet
• The average cost of care for the pet with one insurance claim at the same life stages
• The actual amount spent on healthcare by half of the clients owning the same breed at each of the three life stages

“Studies show owners want to learn about the future costs of care for their beloved pets. When animal health care teams educate clients about future veterinary costs, they empower the owner to proactively plan for their pet’s healthcare,” added Fortunato. “This leads to less client economic limitations, resulting in more care for pets and the preservation of the family-pet bond. Veterinary teams have less moral stress, leading to decreased burnout and improved workplace satisfaction. There is an increase in revenue, both from the increased ability of clients to pay for recommended care, as well as increased business as satisfied clients give more word-of-mouth referrals.”

In addition to the “Cost of Care Wheel,” the Veterinary Resource Center contains:

• Client Educational Materials—Order complimentary brochures, posters and more to help start the conversation about pet insurance with your clients
• Digital Library— Leverage our downloadable resources to help grow your business and discuss the cost of pet health care with your clients
• Continuing Education— Learn new concepts and unique ways of thinking with on-demand CE courses, designed to benefit your teams, clients, pets and business.

“We believe if you educate clients, you protect pets. According to a recent survey**, veterinary staff ranked ‘helping clients afford unexpected vet expenses’ and ‘focus less on cost and more on treating pets’ as their top motivators for recommending pet health insurance to their clients. Our resource center contains collateral that will help you in this effort,” added Fortunato.

Learn more at Crum & Foster Pet Insurance or here.