Preventive care plans help manage vet costs for vaccines, exams, and more. Here’s how they differ from pet insurance.
Pet insurance is super similar to human healthcare insurance in that it helps cover the cost of regularly scheduled healthcare needs as well as emergency treatment caused by illness or accidents. This coverage usually covers things like routine vet visits, surgeries, medications, and other tests that may need to be run. But as with human insurance, pet insurance varies on what is an eligible expense — aka, what it will cover and how much.
🐾We dive deep into what pet insurance covers as well as what some of the best plans are, depending on your needs.
Wellness plans, on the other hand, cover expected and routine vet costs exclusively. The point of a wellness plan, really, is to help spread the cost of routine vet care over time as opposed to paying a lump sum at an individual visit. So, expected costs like exams and blood tests will be covered under a wellness plan, but injuries or surgeries would not.
Routine care is covered under a wellness plan, and while every plan is different—and you should do your own research to determine which is right for you, your budget, and your pet—most cover annual exams and vaccinations.
These annual or biannual checkups give your vet a chance to assess your pet’s overall health, catch early signs of illness, and keep their records up to date. Exams often include a physical evaluation, dental check (but not dental work, which is separate), and time to talk through behavior, nutrition, or lifestyle changes. Under a pet wellness plan, these visits are always covered, since they’re an expected part of your pet’s preventative health journey.
Most plans include basic diagnostic screenings like bloodwork, fecal tests, urinalysis, and heartworm tests. Some also cover titer tests, which can help determine if a pet still has immunity from previous vaccinations. These plans do not, however, cover testing for mystery illnesses or pre-surgery testing.
Vaccines like rabies, distemper, and bordetella are commonly included, as are flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives. Heartworm is especially serious—it’s widespread across the U.S. and costly to treat once diagnosed. Monthly prevention (covered by wellness plans) is safer and far more affordable in the long run.
Some wellness plans help cover the cost of spay or neuter procedures, typically during puppy or kittenhood. This not only has long-term health benefits but also plays a vital role in preventing overpopulation. With shelters nationwide facing overcrowding (there are tens of millions of stray animals in the U.S. every year), early spaying and neutering is more important than ever.
Many wellness plans include or partially cover microchipping, a one-time procedure that helps reunite pets with their families if they’re lost. For those whose plans don’t include it, services like FidoTabby offer microchip registration and pet ID support affordably. We also recommend using multiple tracking measures, like an Apple AirTag or smart collars with GPS, in case your pet gets loose.
“Semi-annual exams are important. When one year goes by for a human, it equates to almost seven years for a pet, so a lot can change in the span of just six to twelve months. Catching problems early is critical, and routine blood work after the age of 6 or 7 is also highly recommended.” - Erica Irish, DVM
Pet wellness plans operate similarly to a subscription. They can be paid with a lump sum up front or over time, but the purpose is for you to not have to grab your credit card at the end of every vet visit. This should help to make budgeting easier, since you know what the cost will be ahead of time, regardless of what your dog needs.
Depending on the provider, your plan may reimburse you after a visit, or your vet may handle the services in-house with no extra billing. Some plans can include extras like dental cleanings, microchipping, or small discounts on additional services. But unlike pet insurance, wellness plans don’t cover accidents or illnesses. They’re designed specifically to help manage the cost of routine care. So if you want coverage for the unexpected, you'll also want traditional pet insurance.
As with anything, you’ll want to take stock of your particular needs and try to find a plan that matches those. But you should be looking at a few key factors to determine which plan is right for you:
If you want consistency and a wellness plan that gets rave reviews, then look no further. Embrace’s Wellness Rewards is regularly rated a top pet wellness plan in large part thanks to its broad coverage and flexibility. Covered expenses range from vaccines, spaying and neutering, microchipping, dental cleaning, and even training. There’s also coverage for cremation, burial, grooming, and training, which many other plans don’t include.
Another added benefit is that there’s no deductible to be met and funds are immediately accessible once you’ve enrolled. It operates very similarly to a flexible spending account where you pay up front for your “subscription” and are reimbursed up until your plan limit, which can range from $300-$700, without paying at every visit.
They essentially work like a subscription for your pet’s routine care. You pay a monthly or annual fee that covers services like exams, vaccines, lab tests, and parasite prevention. Some plans reimburse you after the visit, while others bill directly through your vet. Unlike insurance, wellness plans don’t cover emergencies or illnesses since they’re designed to make preventive care easier to manage and more affordable.
When it comes to choosing preventative treatments under a pet wellness plan, options vary depending on the provider. Be sure to research all of your options before choosing a plan.
Wellness plans aren’t a substitute for pet insurance in that they don’t cover emergencies or treatment of illnesses. There are some cases where vet-clinic plans may offer small discounts for other services, but they aren’t large nor are they guaranteed.
That depends on which you choose. Some do, whether it be a few days to a few weeks, while others have no waiting periods at all. In certain cases, specific services have waiting periods while others don’t, so you’ll need to read the fine print to be 100% sure.
