How Much Would You Spend to Save Your Pooch?

The pleasure of owning a pet is often counterbalanced by the pain of huge veterinary costs for life-saving procedures that can fracture a family’s finances.

While veterinarians cannot reduce those costs for the kinds of medical treatment that has advanced dramatically in the past decade, they have means for dealing with the shock of the sudden bills handed to pet lovers.

Two Skokie veterinarians strongly recommend pet health insurance, a relatively inexpensive commodity compared to its human counterpart. They also offer several credit-card or payment programs that spread out the often-unanticipated costs of surgery or other involved treatments.

“I find that they are very worth the investment up front, and the return on your investment – even the amount of money they reimburse for wellness care for your family veterinarian – pays for itself,” said Dr. Jay Ryan, medical director of Animal 911, 3735 W. Dempster, Skokie’s only 24-hour emergency veterinary clinic.

“Then, when you are faced with an emergency and face a more costly surgery or hospitalized care, they’re (insurers) are not going to pay 100 percent of your balance by any means, but it will make that surprise health-care cost a little bit more easier to deal with. You’ll be reimbursed anywhere between 20 and 50 percent of the cost that you might experience with an emergency surgery.

“I also encourage people when they get a young dog or cat to set aside an emergency fund, maybe $15 or $20 per month, as an extra cushion.”

In wholehearted agreement with Ryan is Dr. Emil Baukert, owner of Riser Animal Hospital, which has operated at its offices, 5335 W. Touhy Ave., since 1950 and is one of the longest-running veterinary practices in the northern suburbs.

“The first thing to do is be pro-active and think about insurance – you’ve got to cover yourself for the things that your own budget can’t pay for,” said Baukert. “I usually tell people to shoot for the really expensive, serious things.”

Treatment-option talks a must

Both Baukert and Ryan won’t plow ahead with a full-speed, most-expensive plan of treating a pet. A crucial pre-treatment conference is going over different medical pathways and combing over itemized bills.

“Often there are different approaches to treatment,” Baukert said. “There might be an ideal, money’s-no-object approach, and then there’s a more practical approach.”

Surgery and chemotherapy are typically the most expensive procedures. Emergency care is also more costly at Animal 911 than at the family practitioners such as Riser.

“To offer high-quality critical care medicine on a 24-hour basis as we do, we have significant operating costs,” Ryan said. “We have fees that are higher than your family practitioner. We can make every effort that works in your financial limitations. If we choose not to perform a certain diagnostic or not choose a particular treatment, we can help you understand what that might mean for the outlook of your pet.

“Surgical costs can range into the several-thousand dollars range," Ryan added. "Also the need for blood and plasma transfusions. All those come from outside suppliers.  Those suppliers face significant costs just stocking their blood banks. It’s much harder to get dog and cat blood compared to human blood, and it’s already a challenge on the human side. We have an even smaller number of donors.”

Other triggers for the rise in costs are prescription price increases and pay hikes and college debt loads for veterinarians, Baukert said.

Ryan said many emergency clinics such as his own offer outside financing options - credit card type systems through either Wells Fargo Bank and CareCredit, associated with GE Capital Bank. Although the emergency care providers most often require full payment at time of the medical treatment, the pet owner can sign up for these financing options, which often have low- or no-interest offers for a certain time period, and pay the balance that way.

Baukert, who does not offer a CareCredit plan, will work out a monthly payment schedule with pet owners if they are faced with a sudden huge bill.

“I feel comfortable doing that with established clients that have been with us, compared with clients just coming in for the first time,” he said.

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