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CVMA Partner, Petcard Explains the Benefit of Veterinary Procedure Financing
Sep 1, 2021
The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) is the voice of the Canadian veterinary profession in promoting animal welfare and One Health, to ensure optimal care for animals, people, and the environment. The CVMA partners with companies that align with our vision to help CVMA members provide the best care to their animals and clients. One of the CVMA partners, Petcard provides convenient and affordable financing options for clients through the The Petcard® Program.
You have trained for this moment. You examined the patient, diagnosed the condition, and prescribed treatment. As you present treatment options to your patient’s human companion, you are confronted with the by now all too familiar refrain, “I can’t afford this, is there anything else we can do?” It’s an unfortunate reality that economic concerns often overtake animal welfare needs in determining health outcomes, and the consequences are often tragic for all concerned. As an animal health provider, your focus is on providing the very best in care to your patients and advice to their human companions. When it comes to paying for veterinary costs, which often come at unexpected or inopportune times, there are few options.
Pet Insurance has been increasing in popularity in Canada, but unless your client has already purchased a policy, it will not be available to cover a pre-existing condition. Historically, veterinarians have offered “in-house” payment plans and indeed many still do. In-house payment plans can be effective for trusted clients on a case-by-case basis but can quickly become a time-consuming headache for staff and can ruin client relationships and tarnish business reputations. They can also be very costly to your bottom line. This leaves 3rd-party payment plans, or veterinary procedure financing as it is more commonly known.
Veterinary procedure financing provides your clients the opportunity to choose the best treatment options available by converting what can be prohibitively large estimates into affordable monthly payments. This can usually be done in office within a matter of minutes, with the funds being sent directly to your clinic. Using a 3rd-party has the added advantage of separating you and your staff from administering payment plans and dealing with complicated and frustrating collections issues.
Veterinary procedure financing generally comes with little or no cost to your office, as the loans they provide come with interest rates that are generally lower than, or competitive with, those offered by credit cards. Offering these programs in your clinic is almost always less costly than the administration fees charged by debit and credit card processing companies over an annual basis. The only shortcoming of 3rd party financing is that not all applications can be approved. Companies use differing adjudication criteria, but nearly all utilize credit bureaus to determine credit worthiness. As unfortunate as these circumstances can be, finance companies are better suited than your office at assessing credit risk and these assessments can be used to better inform your staff’s decision-making and save your office from incurring potentially massive losses.
Running a veterinary clinic is a passion, as well as a business. As an animal health provider, you got into this field out of a love for animals, but you experience people at their most human. Providing the best care for your patients requires not only your medical expertise and an acute perception of the needs of our furry friends, but also understanding and compassion for the more worldly concerns of their human companions.
CVMA members enjoy exclusive special benefits, incentives, and rewards. Visit (www.petcard.ca) or call 1-888-689-9876 today to learn more.