The next generation of pet health plans:
What comes next?
Anyone who knows us knows that we’re down with pet health plans. We call Justin the health plan evangelist, and the rest of the time are right in line.
We've helped dozens of practices launch new plans, and specifically plans with unlimited consults – and the plans we’re currently managing turnover more than £10m a year.
We know how practices can transform their relationship with clients, patients and team – and their bottom line – by getting their plan right.
But the definition of “right” is ever changing, and the options available to us are evolving. It used to be that a forward-thinking practice could be an early adopter of an unlimited consult health plan – now for many clients that’s just a basic expectation.
Our eyes are always turned to what’s next. And frankly, the future is looking pretty exciting.
A first of its kind
Thrums Vets and director Gavin Durston are among our longest tenured and closest clients – and together we’ve built an exceptionally strong health plan, which you may have heard Gav and Justin talking about at London Vet Show, SPVS Business Congress and anywhere else who would have them.
Having that successful plan banked gives us room to experiment. So, earlier this year we launched what we believe is one of the first dedicated dental hygienist plans in UK veterinary practice.
For £16 a month, clients get dental scale and polish treatments as often as the clinical team believe is necessary, six-monthly dental health checks with a nurse, and meaningful discounts on dental diets, toys and aids.
The thinking behind it is straightforward.
Dental disease is one of the most common and preventable problems vets see – and yet, despite years of advising clients to brush their pet's teeth, the problem persists.
Gav’s been explaining his thinking on this fantastically on LinkedIn over the last couple of months, and he put it well when he questioned whether the issue isn't just owner compliance, perhaps the system itself isn't working very well.
The traditional model tends to deliver a big dental procedure, a general anaesthetic and a significant bill – often all at once, often when the owner had no idea things had got so bad.
The dental hygienist plan is designed to interrupt that pattern. Spread the cost. Check regularly. Catch things early. Make the right thing to do the easiest thing to do.
It's early days, but the initial signs are encouraging – and more importantly, it's already prompting bigger questions.
The gap that plans haven't filled yet
The standard wellness plan does its job brilliantly for routine preventative care. Increasingly, practices are including unlimited consults with vets and nurses too, cutting cost as a barrier to care.
Pet insurance handles the other end of the spectrum: accidents, emergencies, surgical procedures.
But there's a growing gap in the middle, and it's where some of the most emotionally and financially difficult moments in a client relationship tend to happen.
Chronic disease. Osteoarthritis. Kidney disease. Diabetes. Cushing's. Atopy. These aren't emergencies, but they're not routine either.
They need regular monitoring, repeat prescriptions, nurse-led check-ins and ongoing clinical oversight – and for many clients the costs feel unpredictable and relentless.
Perhaps chronic disease deserves its own structure – a third layer alongside the wellness plan, with structured reviews, planned monitoring, clear boundaries and predictable costs.
Not a discount scheme or an all-you-can-eat model.
A thoughtfully designed product that acknowledges the reality of how long-term conditions work and builds a proper framework around them.
Why this matters right now
The CMA's final remedies have put transparency and predictability at the heart of the conversation about veterinary care.
Much of the focus has been on disclosure – clearer pricing, better information at the point of service. These are reasonable things to ask for.
But transparency and predictability aren't quite the same thing.
Paying £600 in monthly instalments feels fundamentally different from being handed a £600 bill at the end of a stressful consultation – even when the total is identical. The emotional experience of cost is shaped not just by the number, but by when and how it arrives.
Behavioural science backs this up. People remember experiences by their worst moment and their ending – a phenomenon known as the peak-end rule.
In veterinary practice, that worst moment is usually the bill – arriving when emotions are already running high.
A layered model – wellness plan for routine preventative care, a chronic care add-on for long-term conditions, insurance for genuine emergencies – could mitigate moments that erode client trust, rather than simply labelling them more clearly.
The opportunity for savvy practices
There's a broader point here about who shapes these models and when.
For years the conversation about health plans in our industry went through predictable stages: scepticism, reluctant acceptance, gradual adoption.
The practices that move early – that test ideas, learn from real data and refine their approach – will be better placed than those waiting to see what the large vet groups (LVGs) do first.
Nimble practices have a genuine advantage here. They know their clients. They sit inside their communities. They understand what their specific patient population actually needs – which is not the same in a rural Highland practice as it is in an urban small animal clinic.
A curious, rigorous approach to innovation is exactly what our industry needs more of.
And we’re here to provide it.
What we think comes next
We're not suggesting every practice needs to launch a dental plan tomorrow.
The basics still matter enormously – a well-run, well-promoted wellness plan with strong team buy-in is the foundation everything else sits on, and when it hits 33% of total practice revenue those foundations are strong.
But the direction of travel feels clear. The practices that thrive over the next five years will be those thinking carefully about the full shape of their client relationships – not just what happens in the consultation room, but how care is structured, communicated and paid for across the lifetime of a pet.
The dental hygienist plan is a small, concrete example of that thinking in action. We're proud of what we built with Thrums – and excited about where it points.
If you'd like to talk about what a more specialised plan might look like for your practice, you know where we are.
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