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 dont want to join a corporate practice or who just cant integrate the existing insurance plans into their patient base. And there are literally millions of pet owners who simply dont 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 whove 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 thats 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 dont want to join a corporate practice or who just cant integrate the existing insurance plans into their patient base. And there are literally millions of pet owners who simply dont 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 pets 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 theres 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. Its added absolutely no additional work or hassle on our end and its 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 isnt 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 theyve worked so hard to establish."

Contact General Partner Jay Van Zandt at 817-483-4422 or jay@prepaidvet.com 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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