What is Long-Term Care?
In veterinary practice, long-term care refers to the continuous treatment of a pet with a chronic medical condition, such as cancer, diabetes, or arthritis. Long-term care helps animals have the best quality of life possible while managing their ongoing health issues. Long-term care can include practices like physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, and homeopathic medicine.
Like humans, pets are living increasingly longer lives, which means that more pets will require long-term care - often for two or even three chronic conditions at once.
How Long-Term Care Works
Long-term care can be expensive because it typically involves many visits to your veterinarian and specialist teams, frequent testing, prescription medications, lifelong support to provide your pet with the best quality of life. Pet insurance offers accident-illness coverage for treatments related to most illnesses, including those that require long-term care (so long as the condition did not exist prior to enrollment). Accident-only pet insurance plans, by contrast, will not cover veterinary costs for the short- or long-term treatment of illnesses.
Key Takeaways
- Long-term care is often necessary for the management of chronic illnesses and conditions.
- Examples of long-term care include prescription medications, hormone replacement, and alternative therapies.
- Accident-Illness pet insurance coverage provides you with a financial buffer in case your pet requires long-term care.
