In a Nutshell
pros
- Wellness plan
- No age limits on coverage
- Choose your deductible
cons
- There are no prices on the website
- Alternative therapies aren’t covered
- 80% reimbursement rate could be higher
Highlights:
- Use any vet, including emergency and specialty vets, across the US and Canada
- Highly customizable plans that let you choose your deductible and your add-ons
- Physical, laser, and hydrotherapies included
- 5% discount if you insure more than 1 pet
What’s Covered?
PetPartners has plans for both cats and dogs. There are 2 basic plans—the Companion Select plan, which covers medical care from accidents, and the Companion Plus plan, which also covers illness.
If your pet has an accident, both plans will pay for hospitalization, surgery, lab tests including X-rays, MRI, or CAT scans and ultrasounds, prescribed medication, and euthanasia if that should be necessary. The Companion Plus plan also covers all of the same costs for treating illness, including cancer coverage.
PetPartners allows you to add extra coverage, so you can choose to add any and all of the following policies:
- Wellness care, which pays for routine care, such as chipping, defleaing and deworming treatments, dental cleaning, vaccinations, spaying or neutering, and regular tests
- Inherited illness, which covers treatment for inherited and congenital conditions that are excluded from the standard Companion Select and Companion Plus plans, such as hip dysplasia and arthritis
- Diabetes care
- Exam care
In addition, PetPartners covers your pet when you travel anywhere in the US or Canada, and you don’t need to have registered your dog with the American Kennel Club to be eligible. You can use any vet, including emergency or specialty vets, anywhere in the US or Canada and still get your reimbursement.
What are the Limits and Deductibles?
PetPartners repays you directly for up to 80% of the cost of your pet's medical care, once you reach your deductible. Deductibles are flexible, so when you start your pet insurance policy, you can decide on the size of your deductible. Your deductible is calculated annually, not per incident, so every claim counts towards your yearly deductible limit. It's good to know that wellness care doesn't have any deductible or co-insurance.
There is a per-incident limit which places a ceiling on the amount of coverage you can claim for any single incident throughout the life of the policy. The amount isn’t given on the website—it will depend on your pet’s health and your preferences when you get a quote. Per-incident limits don’t reset.
There is a waiting period before you can claim on any policy. You have to wait 3 days between the policy start date and making a claim for any accident care, and 14 days before claiming illness coverage. The only exceptions are IVDD (Intervertebral Disc Disease) and cruciate ligament related conditions, which have a 180-day waiting period.
Age Limits
PetPartners will cover dogs from the age of 8 weeks and cats from the age of 10 weeks. PetPartners promises never to drop coverage as your pet ages. Once you have your PetPartners insurance policy, your cat or dog will be covered throughout its lifetime, as long as you keep your policy current and don’t have any gaps in your coverage.
You can enroll your pet in the Companion Select accident care plan and various add-ons no matter what age they are, but the Companion Plus illness coverage plan only accepts new pets up until their 9th birthday. Once your pet is covered, though, it won’t be canceled when they age.
What’s Not Covered?
Like most standard pet insurance plans, PetPartners doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions or inherited or congenital conditions (unless you buy the Inherited Plus plan), or preventable conditions (meaning that your vet advises you to take action to prevent this from happening). Other exclusions include injuries connected to pregnancy, whelping, breeding or nursing, nutritional supplements, elective or cosmetic surgery, and grooming costs.
PetPartners doesn’t offer coverage for alternative therapies such as herbal and homeopathic remedies, acupuncture, and chiropractic, but they do specify that they include hydrotherapy, physical therapy, and laser therapy in their coverage.
Summary
PetPartners has enough plan options to make sure that your pet is covered no matter what happens. The flexible plans and no upper age limit for accident coverage are appealing, but some pet owners may be put off by the lack of coverage for alternative therapies. International coverage would be a bonus, and there are other pet insurance providers that reimburse a higher percentage of your pet care costs.
