Pet insurance

technical advice is our interpretation of how professional standards apply in a particular situation it is designed to help veterinarians deal with common issues in practice, using their professional judgement to apply the advice to their own situation it represents our best efforts at the time of publication but standards and expectations change over time and particular care should be used when reading old advice can our clinic offer and recommend pet insurance to clients? what if we receive incentives from the insurance company? pet insurance can enable some animals to receive veterinary care that would otherwise be unaffordable, so veterinarians may want to recommend it however, there are some rules around providing advice about pet insurance and accepting incentives that veterinarians need to consider advising on insurance financial advice is a regulated activity and can only be done by licensed people advising on pet insurance is covered by this regulation, which includes making a recommendation about, or expressing an opinion on, getting (or not getting) pet insurance (see section 431c of the financial markets conduct act 2013 https //www legislation govt nz/act/public/2013/0069/latest/whole html ) there is an exception if advice is given as a secondary part of a business whose main activity is not providing financial advice, which would be the case for most veterinary clinics (see schedule 5, clause 8 of the act https //www legislation govt nz/act/public/2013/0069/latest/whole html#lms465864 ) this means that any veterinarian or staff member who provides a general opinion or recommendation about pet insurance, and does not endorse a particular product or policy, would not be providing regulated financial advice incentives and recommending particular products some pet insurance companies offer incentives to practices for clients who take out pet insurance with them the code says that incentives are gifts or rewards offered to individual veterinarians or their staff which provide a significant personal benefit and therefore have the potential to influence treatment decisions (including the choice of restricted veterinary medicine) or incentivise sales examples might include cash, event tickets, travel, hospitality, and consumables it also states that veterinarians must not seek or accept incentives that can be shown to influence their treatment or sales decisions veterinarians should use their judgement when offered inducements ultimately the test the veterinarian should apply is whether they believe the gift has the potential to influence their professional judgement questions worth considering when faced with the offer of an inducement include would my clients consider that my treatment recommendations might be influenced if i accept this? how would the media respond if the inducement was disclosed? while recommending a pet insurance product for which you receive an incentive is unlikely to affect treatment decisions, it could reasonably affect your sales decisions members of the public put trust in veterinarians and other clinic staff to give them authoritative and unbiased advice on their animals’ health finding out that some of the advice they received was influenced by incentives could damage that trust secret commissions act 1910 under this act https //www legislation govt nz/act/public/1910/0040/latest/dlm177643 html , any veterinarians who advise customers to enter a pet insurance contract must disclose any gifts, considerations or rewards they will receive from the insurer for a veterinarian to comply with this act they must fully disclose the existence of the arrangement (including any benefits paid to the veterinarian by the insurer); and obtain the client’s consent to it we recommend that veterinarians and clinics provide access to a number of insurance products and always advise clients to do their own research, or get independent advice if needed avoid recommending specific pet insurance products unless there is good reason to do so it may be more suitable to advise owners on what to look for in a policy (e g look for policies that cover a specific condition or breed) if incentives are received from insurance providers, be transparent about this and avoid recommending that provider specifically, where possible some phrases that may be useful for veterinarians to use “we recommend considering pet insurance because it allows you to make decisions about your pet’s care without having financial concerns about a particular treatment option ” “you should make your own decision on what the best option is for you if you’re interested in pet insurance, you could search online to see what is available, or i can give you some of the information we have ” “some of my clients have said they have been impressed with (company/policy) because of (note reasons such as customer service, prompt payments, level of cover etc) ” “it’s important to us that you are aware that some of the insurers give us/our staff an incentive if you sign up with them if you decide to register with this company, please mention our name to them ” “pet insurance is your decision you should choose the policy that best suits you and your situation ”