A waiting period in a pet insurance is the time for which an insured pet has to wait to get an insurance coverage for some or all of the ailments. During this waiting period, the owner of the insured pet will not receive coverage for claims filed. This period of time in which insured pets have to wait for the insurance coverage is also known as the qualifying period and the elimination period. Most of the pet insurance companies have a waiting period feature which applies to an insured pet after its enrollment.

The motive behind the waiting period
The waiting period policy is applied by most of the companies because they want to make sure that there is no involvement of any fraud during the enrollment of pet in an insurance policy; be it new or existing ones. Some people enroll their pets only when their pets need an urgent care or suffer from an injury or accident. This period protects the insurance companies from any such fraudulent act. During this waiting period, they examine the insured pet for their assurance that the pet is not suffering from any pre-existing disease or injury or condition. If there is no such type of waiting period policy, the insurance companies could end up paying a large amount of money in the initial stage of enrollment of any pet as most people tend to make an insurance coverage policy only when it will be needed.

Different waiting period policies of various states
Each of the pet insurance policy has a different waiting period. Additionally, different states vary in waiting period policy as some of the states provide a waiting period of 48 hours and some of them have a fourteen-day waiting period policy. This will depend on which state you are a resident of. Approximately, all of the insurance companies have a waiting period of six months if your dog suffers from orthopedic conditions. Only a few companies will have exceptional cases in which if your dog clears all orthopedic tests beforehand, then these companies will not wait for six months to pay for any orthopedic surgery of your dog.

Claims during a waiting period
If your dog suffers from any sudden health issue and he is under the waiting period at that time, you are not able to reimburse that claim as it will not be covered. That’s why it has been suggested by many insurance companies to get your pet insured when they are young and are in good health condition.

Types of waiting periods
Generally, every insurance company has three types of waiting periods. These waiting periods depend on the type of the condition your pet is suffering from. The waiting period for accidents or any injury is about zero to fifteen days based on the insurance company policy. For any disease, the waiting period decided by most of the insurance companies is fourteen to thirty days. If your pet suffers from any orthopedic condition, the waiting period varies from fourteen days to twelve months.

The waiting period for different pet insurance companies

• Embrace pet insurance:
  Embrace pet insurance companies provide a waiting period of forty-eight hours for injuries. For illness, the waiting period is fourteen days. The orthopedic condition will only be covered for any pet after six months.
• Healthy Paws Pet Insurance:
  The waiting period for accidents and diseases is fifteen days at this pet insurance company. This insurance company also covers hip dysplasia depending on the age of the pet and the waiting period for this ailment treatment coverage is twelve months.
• Geico Pet Insurance:
  This pet insurance company has no waiting period for the insurance of any ailment or any injury.

Based on these waiting period policies, you can select pet insurance policy you think will be the best for your pet.