Financing the veterinary care of pets through CareCredit has been available since April 2023 at all three of Virginia Tech’s hospitals.
The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center in Roanoke, the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg and the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Blacksburg all accept CareCredit from clients.
“Our hope is that with CareCredit more of our clients will be able to pay for the services that their pet needs,” Drema Foster, director of clinical business operations for the veterinary college, said. “That has been a real challenge. We have offered payment plans, but those have been short term, three or four months. Now they can finance through CareCredit for up to 60 months. It gives our clients a lot more options.”
Issued by Synchrony Bank, CareCredit is a credit card that can be used to cover out-of-pocket expenses not covered by pet insurance or other means for both human and pet health care. This payment option allows larger expenses to be paid in smaller increments over longer periods of time than most other payment options.
The “spectrum of care” concept is embraced by Virginia Tech’s veterinary hospitals. Options are offered for animal health care that better fit each individual client’s ability to pay. The acceptance of CareCredit will widen some clients’ ability to pay for more intensive and more expensive veterinary care.
“It could have the potential to bring us more owners who might be willing to move forward with treatment,” Joanne Tuohy, assistant professor in surgical oncology for the veterinary college who performs cancer surgery for dogs and cats at both the teaching hospital and cancer center, said. “When we get a referral, our client care coordinators call them and give an estimate for an initial appointment with us. And some of them say: ‘No, we can’t come, we just simply can’t afford it.’ I think we can help more owners and their pets with cancer as some of those owners may end up coming because they have a payment option.”
For more than a decade, the veterinary hospitals had a goal of offering CareCredit, which offers some clients the ability to pay for unexpected situations.
“People are often not prepared for catastrophic things that happen to their pets, such as being hit by a car or a horse that has colic,” Foster said. “All of a sudden, you have a bill you were not expecting. That’s why we try to educate our clients now before they need it. You’re coming in for a yearly visit, why not go ahead and apply for CareCredit now. It can be used for everything from the basic vaccine to a farm visit, an emergency, major surgery or cancer treatment.”
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Rebecca Barnabi
