A Casey single mother has less than 10 days to pay off her two month old kitten’s vet bill after they were told their insurance claim would be approved, but was later rejected upon his discharge.
The family is crowdfunding to help pay off the original vet bill of more than $5000 for kitten Benji.
With donations from numerous organisations, including the emergency vet staff, there’s still $2400 remaining to be paid off.
Jess Mead says she relies on government assistance payments for her and her 11-year old daughter who has ASD 2, ADHD and Cerebral Palsy.
And says that if the vet bill is not paid off in time, she will be debited the remaining amount every fortnight until it is paid off, which she says puts her at risk of losing her home.
“Me and my daughter will lose our house and everything, because that’s how I pay rent,” Mead said.
“I’m a 31 year old single and only parent to my daughter with disabilities and all we get to live off is a pension,”
“We can’t afford to be paying a bill like that.”
According to Mead, Benji was in critical condition and given only a small chance of survival when they brought him into an emergency pet clinic in Casey with laboured breathing.
As per the hospital summary from the vet, it states that Benji presented to the clinic in a “collapsed and comatose state with pale mucous membranes, respiratory distress and hypothermia.”
Upon admission at the emergency, Mead says the vet contacted insurance within the “first 10 minutes” to check if Benji was covered and was given the all clear.
During the emergency vet visit, Benji required an extensive list of procedures including being put on an oxygen mask, an IV, as well as needing a blood transfusion from another donor who travelled from Sunshine following Mead’s pleas on social media.
Mead says that before each procedure, the vet continued to call the insurance company who said they could approve the procedures as long as it didn’t exceed the $24,000 cap of their full comprehensive pet insurance.
“[The vet] rang and said, ‘Look, we’re sitting at around $5000 so far for the bill. Is that okay?’… And insurance said yes, the five grand was fine… and approved the medication and everything for him to come home,” she said.
“The next morning we went in, she put the claim through and they rejected it.”
Mead says the claim was rejected upon discharge due to the insurer asserting that Benji had a pre-existing illness.
But according to the owner of the rescue organisation, Vanessa, along with Benji’s adoption papers, kitten health book, desexing certificate and numerous vet checks, no prior illness was apparent.
In learning about Benji’s condition, Vanessa says she contacted the family who adopted Benji’s brother, who had no signs of the same illness.
As well as citing a pre-existing illness, according to the insurance’s policy on waiting periods, any cover obtained has a 30-day waiting period for illnesses.
Meaning Benji is not covered for illnesses until the end of November, despite the insurance’s original approval.
According to Mead, although Benji is doing much better after the several lifesaving measures for his life by the vet, she now has to deal with the repercussions of the bill.
Since the claim rejection, Mead has asked anyone that can contribute to donate to their GoFundMe.
Star News Group has reached out to the insurance company but no response has yet been given at the time of publication.
