Fees and payments

The hospital is a self-financing and non-profit making institution. During your initial (chargeable) consultation, estimated costs of recommended diagnostic and treatment options will be fully discussed with you prior to further actions being taken.

How to pay

We accept debit and credit cards (excluding American Express)

For further information, please refer to the RVC’s Terms of Business:
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/online-payment/terms-and-conditions

Online Payments

Paying online is an easy way for you to pay hospital invoices.
Please make sure that you fill in all the fields correctly so we can allocate the payment to the correct account

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/online-payment/terms-and-conditions
This facility is NOT available to owners who have pets who are admitted as in-patients.

If your pet is not insured

A deposit of 50% of the estimated bill will be required from you at the time that your pet is admitted to the hospital and with each additional estimate increase unless you are insured (see below). You are responsible for full settlement of your account at the time your pet is discharged from the hospital.

If your pet is insured

Please speak to us to discuss what paperwork is required to claim the costs back. These insurance documents must be emailed to qmhaccounts@rvc.ac.uk prior to your appointment or within 24hrs of admission. We will not be able to process your claim unless we are in receipt of ALL required documents, and you will be responsible for full payment. We are happy to liaise with the insurance company about recovery of fees on your behalf, but if, for any reason, the insurance company does not pay the entire amount, you will be responsible for outstanding balances. We do not offer payment plans.

INDIRECT INSURANCE CLAIMS - This means if your pet is insured and you are initially paying the immediate costs. A deposit of 50% of the estimated bill will be required from you at the time that your pet is admitted to the hospital. Payment will be expected in full at the time of collection of your pet; this will enable us to process your indirect claim. We aim to process claim forms promptly so that insurance companies can reimburse you swiftly. Please be advised that it can take several weeks.

DIRECT INSURANCE CLAIMS - This means claims are to be paid directly to the RVC by your insurance company as agreed by our Accounts team.

On admission, a non-refundable admin fee of £25 (including VAT) is payable for processing your claim. A additional £100 deposit will be requested at the time of the first consultation. This is to cover any shortfalls or excesses deducted by your insurance provider. This £100 deposit will be refundable if full payment is received from your insurance company.

Please ensure that you have an initial claim made with your regular GP/Primary Care vet if applicable. You are responsible for liaising with, and providing any requested information by, your insurance company. If an insurance claim is not settled within 60 days, we will require you to settle your account in full. Your case report for your referring GP/Primary Care vet will be forwarded with the claim insurance company at their request.

Claim Preauthorisation

If you wish to obtain a pre-authorisation ahead of your appointment please be aware this MUST be requested a minimum of 7 working days prior to your appointment.

For emergency and out of hour appointments a pre-authorisation may not be possible so please speak to the Accounts team to discuss this.

A pre-authorisation is NOT required if you have previously claimed for the condition/investigation in your current policy year. Instead, please contact your insurance company to confirm the remaining limit left for this condition ahead of your appointment. Not all insurance company’s accept pre-authorisation requests so this must be confirmed with them verbally, they will also advise which documents are required to process this.

It can take 24-48hrs to submit a pre-authorisation after the request and the majority take 3-5 working days to process. Please be aware that the accounts team may not always be able to fulfil your request.