The Cost of Care

Course overview

The purpose of this course is to discuss common barriers to veterinary care and ways to eliminate them. Focusing primarily on cost, this course provides proactive conversational tools that veterinary professionals can use to inform pet parents about budgeting for their pets' care. Medical costs can often stand in the way of a pet's access to care due to their family's inability to afford unexpected out-of-pocket expenses. When these costs exceed what's known as the stop-treatment threshold (the average maximum out-of-pocket expense that families in Canada and the US can afford) pet parents are forced to make impossible decisions, and these situations can unfortunately lead to economic euthanasia. Pet parents are often uninformed about the potential for such incidents, such as injuries from accidents and illnesses due to genetic predispositions. By taking this course, veterinary professionals will learn how to prepare pet parents for these situations, thereby increasing access to care because when prepared, pet parents can have peace of mind to agree to the gold standard care their pets deserve and veterinary professionals can focus on what matters most -- treating patients.