Universal Health Care?

So most of you know, poor little Noche went missing for 18 days. She was found across the Golden Gate bridge, 30 miles away in NOVATO!!!

When she first went missing we called to this company called HomeAgain. It's a service in which you can register your pet's microchip and should your pet go missing you notify them and they send out information to shelters and vets so that if your pet is scanned it will be linked to your current information, etc... One of the advantages is that HomeAgain offers pet insurance so if your pet is injured or gets fleas or anything while it's away this "pet insurance" will cover the vet costs... well this is where it gets Koo Koo!

When Noche was found she had burns on either side of her body - I'll spare you the pictures. Apparently, she stayed true to her gypsy ways and went for a ride in the engine of a car all the way to Marin County.

Upon her return and being the good pet owners we are, we took her to the vet who said that her burns were pretty deep and she would be in pain and risk infection unless they stitched her up... the cost of the surgery a whopping $1600+ (this after the $2400 we paid to the same vet in Feb for the surgery to get all Noche's teeth removed, a whole other story) I was like PERFECT! good thing we have that insurance from HomeAgain... dun dun dun....

Well after a call to HomeAgain they said the insurance is through a 3rd party company called Pet First. Call to Pet First, Agent says yes we have all your info here... and wait for it... here it comes....

BUT YOU DID NOT CALL TO ACTIVATE THE POLICY WHEN YOUR CAT WENT MISSING... WE CAN ACTIVATE THE POLICY TODAY, HOWEVER, HER INJURIES WOULD BE CONSIDERED A PREEXISTING CONDITION...

Uh... WTF?! SERIOUSLY!!!

So, after talking to The Rog, who was at the airport, he said nobody told him that he had to "ACTIVATE" the policy... went back through the emails, no mention of activating shit!

Here's what I wrote to HomeAgain customer service and what I posted on their website under the "Success Stories" (needless to say, they did NOT publish my story on their website)...

"We first off would like to compliment Home Again for the service they provide. Yes it worked, our cat was found across the Golden Gate Bridge, 30 miles away from home, 18 days after she went missing. We are forever grateful for this service. However, our cat was injured pretty badly. Several vet visits and a month later she is still recovering from her wounds. Home Again advertises pet insurance should your animal be found injured or in need of medical treatment. However, when we called to inquire about this insurance we were told by Home Again and Pet 1st that although they had our information in their computer system, WE never called to activate the insurance policy. This is outrageous! We were never told we had to call to ACTIVATE! Otherwise we would have done so!! It cost us nothing to activate it, so why wouldn't we do that? We have everything to gain by activating the policy and everything to lose by not activating it! This is a SCAM!!! I investigate insurance fraud for a living and it is companies like Pet 1st that give the insurance companies a bad name. Additionally, our "case" was assigned to a project manager at Home Again, Paul Knittel. I have called him 4 times over the last 3 weeks asking for a status; he has yet to respond to my inquiries. We are upset because we believe if a company is going to use pet insurance as a way to attract customers, then they better give the customers the information to make sure these animals are insured properly! Luckily we are fortunate enough to afford the $600+ vet bill. We feel awfully horrible for those people and animals out there who can't!"

Here's their response:

"Dear Shannon and Roger,

Today, I heard back from the committee reviewing your PetFirst case. They asked how much the vet bill was and I told them I didn’t have a copy yet, but that I was told it was approximately $600. They came back to me a little later and said that they will reimburse you (Roger) $250 minus the $50 deductable = $200 reimbursement.

If you are in agreement to this, HomeAgain will send the necessary papers to receive your $200 reimbursement check. You will need to fax the vet bill to 1-877-778-5888 (attn.: Paul or email it to me).


Recapping: Listening to the recorded call to our Customer Service Representative, Roger Plotz called to report his pet lost. At that time he was told that if he upgraded to full service he would receive several benefits including a Lost Pet Report and Lost Pet Medical Insurance.

He was also told at that time that he would need to call PetFirst Insurance to activate the Lost Pet Medical Insurance whether he ordered on line or over the phone. He was given the phone number to call PetFirst.

Roger enrolled on line later that day. On the HomeAgain web site where he enrolled on line, there is a reminder to call PetFirst to activate the Lost Pet Medical Insurance.

According to contacts at PetFirst, Mr. Plotz was denied a claim because he never activated a policy.


Sincerely,

Paul Knittel
Project Manger/Human Resources"

Unreasonable of me to ask to hear the recording of the phone call?!?!

So, all this kinda reminds me of when Xtina and I were setting up Renter's Insurance and I asked if I could buy a life policy for her cat... well Mr.Obama, can I include my cats on that universal health care plan of yours?!?

I'll keep you posted...

P.S. DO NOT USE HOMEAGAIN OR PETFIRST... THERE ARE OTHER COMPANIES OUT THERE THAT PROVIDE THIS SERVICE.