Insurance administration fee.

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Ian Mostyn — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:36:14 GMT

That makes a lot more sense. It would have changed pet insurance quite dramatically if it cost to put in a claim.

Ian

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Clive Ansell — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:57:38 GMT

The client had their wires crossed somewhere and it had not been entered in the clients notes, but the £10 admin fee was charged by the practice not the insurance company. The insurers will not pay practice admin fees for completing the form.

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Clive Ansell — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:38:36 GMT

Ian,

Not yet, but I will try and find out. The letter from the insurers, Tesco, stated that the excess had been deducted and in addition a £10 admin fee. The client is going to telephone Tesco to query it.

Clive

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Ian Mostyn — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:21:05 GMT

Clive,

Did you get a chance to check up on the admin fee? Just having a few issues with insurance at the moment and it would be interesting to know.

Ian

Re: Insurance administration fee.

J G Wray — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:33:53 GMT

Dear Mr Webb,

[quote user="Laurence Webb"] Although you could argue that all time spend should be charged for, and that filling out insurance forms is a time consuming task, I agree client resentment would be a marked issue. [/quote]

Any resentment disappears with education.

[quote user="Laurence Webb"]There are also financial benefits to having client with insurance. [/quote]

No argument there, but I see the charge for filling in the claim being a deterrent to visiting as a non sequitur.

Insurance is the most expensive way to be paid for our labours, because of delay and administration costs.

We charge

regs

JGW

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Laurence Webb — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:21:11 GMT

We don't charge a fee and it's unlikley that we would do so. Although you could argue that all time spend should be charged for, and that filling out insurance forms is a time consuming task, I agree client resentment would be a marked issue.

There are also financial benefits to having client with insurance. They visit the practice more frequently than non-insured clients (I can't remember the exact figure but Petplan used to suggest they came 2-3 times more often than the average uninsured client) and when animals are ill you can investigate and treat properly rather than trying to cut corners to make it more affordable (or as Matthew Watkinson would suggest our eyes suddenly stop seeing the client and just see £ signs). So whilst on the face of it filling out insurance forms is a drain on finances, I'd be confident that it benefits practices in the long run.

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Hannah Wynne Richards — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:59:10 GMT

This is a new one for me as well It has occurred to me that if they charge a £10 admin fee this will probably be applied every time a form is submitted, rather than once per condition I vigorously promote insurence, so don't charge for filling in forms, and also allow trusted clients (in a small practice that means 95% ) to have the insurence company pay me directly. If this becomes standard practice I can see that with ongoing conditions, clients may very well want to reduce the number of forms submitted,which could have an unfortuneate effect on cash flow

Wynne

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Clive Ansell — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:11:35 GMT

Many thanks for your thoughts, the client seemed adamant but I will check if I can. I must say I had not heard of it before.

Do many practices out there charge a fee to complete insurance claim forms? one of the OOH clinics I worked in levied a £5.87 fee, but it seemed to cause a lot of resentment from clients and was dropped in the end. In some ways it is fair the time taken has to be paid for, just as reviewing a case to provide a prescription does? I dread to think what a lawyer would charge for completing a similar form.

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Niall Taylor — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:36:05 GMT

[quote user="Niall Taylor"]My wife does all the claims here so I'll ask her.[/quote]

I've checked with my wife and she hasn't heard of this fee from insurance companies - maybe there's been crossed wires about what the charge was.

Niall

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Ian Mostyn — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:36:11 GMT

There is no mention of any administration fee in the Tesco T&C's from their website and it is not something I have come across. Has the client got it wrong?

Ian

Re: Insurance administration fee.

Niall Taylor — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:34:17 GMT

I've not heard of insurance companies charging such a fee before. My wife does all the claims here so I'll ask her.

We've always held off charging an admin fee (apart from exceptional cases) so it would be a bit galling if the companies themselves were now charging one. What is the difference between charging £10.00 per claim and charging more on the excess - none I would venture apart from the admin fee is more hidden!

Cheers,

Niall