Easing veterinary care costs

During an interview with dvm360 at the 2025 WVC conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Courtney Campbell, DVM, DACVS-SA, and Jonathan Wainberg, MBA, senior vice president and general manager of Synchrony, pets, share why it is important for veterinary teams to provide a variety of financial options to clients. Throughout the interview, the duo discussed wellness funds, pet insurance, and other offerings that can cater to the unique needs and situations of the patients and clients in the clinic, plus how having financial solutions can ease the stress on clients that comes from paying for treatments.

Below is a partial transcript, edited for clarity.

Courtney Campbell, DVM, DACVS-SA: When you're discussing different financial options with pet owners, the one thing that's been in my experience, and I've seen this just throughout the board, is when you discuss those 3 easy steps, and you say, 'Listen, come in. You pay for it with your Care Credit credit card. You file a claim, and then you just get reimbursed directly to their credit card.' There are so many families who say, 'No, really?' They're almost blown away at the simplicity, they're almost blown away at the ease, and they're almost relieved, like there's a, I like to say relief is the cousin of happiness, right? Because if you drop your cell phone and it's on the floor and you're worried to see if it's cracked in that moment right before you see there's no cracks, just relief, that's happiness, right? It's cousin. And so you see that relief on their face, and I think that's where the real magic comes in, is having that discussion with them, providing them with an innovative financial solution, and seeing that relief on their face, like, Ah, I finally have a way to care for my family member without the struggle of going through it. That's been my experience, but I'd love to hear yours.

Jonathan Wainberg, MBA: I think it's also, it's about choice, right? I think...there's not one solution that's going to work for everyone, right? We've put together what we think is a portfolio of ideas that will help create that safety net for when financial hardship comes up, or a bill that is there. So that is a Care Credit, is it Pets Best insurance? Is it a wellness fund? But you're going to be able to catch some of that stuff.

So understand that there's not going to be one solution that works for everyone, but as long as you're giving them those tools and those options, they're going to be able to figure out a way to do it. And that's why, you know, we love what we're doing together with Pets Best, and that Care Credit [is] powering this, this solution behind it, because you're going to be able to have the variety of solutions that you have, and the ease to make it easier, whether it be for something that's routine or something that's an emergency.