Nationwide announced a partnership with Adopt a Pet, a non-profit pet adoption web service, to provide pet health insurance and pet protection education to potential or new pet owners. Nationwide is named as Adopt a Pet's exclusive pet health insurance carrier and will offer its solutions to the 19,000 pet adoption agencies, shelters and groups posting available adoptions included on the
"Nationwide Pets' focus really is on expanding the opportunity to give care to your pet…We want to really help open up those doors so that people can have a financial safety net by working on making care more accessible," says Heidi Sorota, Nationwide Pet insurance president and chief pet officer. "Pet Insurance isn't a widely known service that people search for. We want to make sure that we can get the word out and reach pet-passionate pet owners who want to take care of their pets, and doing that through pet-passionate brands is one of the ways that we're going to do that."
Mariel Devesa, leader of growth, expansion and development for Nationwide's Pet insurance team, agrees that pet protection education is another major benefit to the partnership.
"A big part of the issue is awareness – most consumers don't know about pet insurance, or why they should get it," adds Devesa. "And so when you adopt a pet, that's an ideal time… being there, and being able to help educate [consumers] about insurance and help them make those right decisions is super exciting."
Solutions offered through this collaboration include Nationwide Pet's general insurance offerings, such as accident or illness protection, and the included benefits – customers receive access to the 24-hour helpline to help with policy-related questions and also receive a digital pharmacy ID card for their pet through the
Through the partnership, both Nationwide and Adopt a Pet can continue their shared mission to educate pet owners on the importance of pet protection and provide ways to manage pet-related costs.
"Most consumers don't know the total cost of a pet," Devesa says. "Then something unfortunately happens, they go to the vet, they don't have insurance, and they get this big shock… For us, it's how [to] help them make that choice or understand that in the front-end, so they don't have that unexpected surprise on the back-end."
Nationwide's veterinary analytics team also utilizes its claims records and policy data to publish white papers that offer specialized pet health information and insights based on breed- and age-specific factors to help potential pet owners understand the projected total cost of the type of pet they are looking to adopt.
