Top 2024 dvm360 podcasts: #5

The Vet Blast Podcast hosted by Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, chief veterinary officer of dvm360, and edited by dvm360’sCaitlin McCafferty, featured a wide variety of veterinary topics and guests throughout the past year. As 2024 draws to a close, dvm360 is looking back and celebrating the Top 5 podcasts, as measured by audience interest and engagement. Through, New Year’s Eve, dvm360 is counting down the Top 5 podcasts by sharing 1 of these episodes per day.

The following podcast is #5 on the list and features guest Ricky Walther, DVM, chief medical officer at Pawlicy Advisor. Walther takes a deep dive into trends and misconceptions surrounding pet insurance, and discusses how veterinary teams can educate clients on pet insurance to help them better understand the importance of having it.

The following is a partial transcript

Ricky Walther, DVM: One of the things that we're seeing in veterinary medicine in general is increased stress and anxiety of owners due to finances, right? So people are coming in more are aware of the money that's in their pocket given the way that the world has been recently, and the veterinary prices are increasing, kind of with that inflation, and medical inflation is even higher than standard. And so because of those things that we're seeing where owners are coming and asking for these financial solutions. So as veterinary team members, right, like we ultimately want what's best for the pet and so helping owners financially prepare allows us to do our part and make sure that pet gets the care that they need in the future.

So I think having these conversations in puppy visits [and] annual wellness visits for young healthy pets are extremely important so the people here at multiple times. A couple of other reasons why I recommend that veterinarians and veterinary teams have something prepared to say about insurance is because when AVMA did their study on pet insurance, a couple of years ago, they found that 65% of pet owners who purchased insurance did so because the vet recommended it.¹

Reference

Williams A, Coble KH, Williams B, et al. Consumer preferences for Pet Health Insurance. Published online 2016. doi:10.22004/AG.ECON.230144

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