Does Pet Insurance Require an Exam for Enrollment?

Some pet insurance companies require a physical exam of your pet or ask you to submit your pet’s veterinary medical records for review before approving your policy. However, MetLife Pet is one pet insurance provider that doesn't require an exam.

Vet visits can be a source of stress for cats, dogs, and pet parents alike. Some pets may take anxiety medication just to make it through an appointment. At MetLife Pet Insurance, we want to minimize this stress. After all, pet insurance should relieve stress, not cause it.

In keeping with this notion, MetLife Pet Insurance doesn’t include an initial exam in our pet insurance requirements. But how do we handle pre-existing conditions?

Pet Insurance and Pre-Existing Conditions

A pre-existing condition is when your pet has an injury or illness prior to enrolling in a pet insurance policy. Many pet insurances don’t cover these conditions, or they only cover them under certain circumstances. MetLife Pet Insurance offers coverage for pre-existing conditions in pets switching from a different insurance company that also covered them.

While we don’t require an initial vet visit to determine any pre-existing conditions, there are two ways we manage caring for such pets.

Vet records

While MetLife Pet doesn’t require vet records when you first enroll your pet in a policy, we do require the past 12 months of vet records — or SOAP notes — when you submit your first claim. If you’ve adopted your pet, we’ll also need their adoption records and any vet records from wherever you adopted them, as well.

SOAP notes stand for subjective, objective, assessment, and plan. These records aren’t just the discharge notes your vet gives you with the bill. They’re detailed documentation of your pet’s condition and treatment. Insurance companies use these to make sure any treatments are for a covered injury or illness.

MetLife Pet doesn’t need these records until you file your first claim. This essentially means we aren’t deciding whether or not to give your pet a policy based on their vet history. Once you enroll your cat or dog in an insurance plan, we’ll manage your vet records and keep them all in one place.

Waiting periods

Like many health insurance policies, a MetLife Pet Insurance policy also has waiting periods for a few conditions. This means we don’t cover certain conditions treated on day one. Instead, it takes some time for certain benefits to kick in after the effective date. However, we have some of the shortest waiting periods in the pet insurance industry:¹

• 14 days for illnesses

Pet Insurance Should Make Your Life Easier

At MetLife Pet Insurance, we get it. Pets are like family. We know how difficult it can be when a member of the family gets sick or injured. So we don’t want to overcomplicate things with exam requirements for pet insurance.

Instead, just submit your vet records at the time of your first claim. We’ll be there with comprehensive plans, robust coverage, and a team of caring and passionate pet advocates when you and your pet need us most. This can help make pet insurance worth it for so many pet parents.