BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Humanities and Social Sciences
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1675999
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Veterinary Access Through One Health and Interprofessional CollaborationsView all 12 articles
A Prospective Observational Study of how Veterinary Clinics and Their Clients Utilized a No-Credit Check, Third-Party Managed, Installment Financing Option to Increase Access to Veterinary Care
Provisionally accepted
- 1Open Door Veterinary Collective, Grand Rapids, United States
- 2Independent Researcher, Geneva, United States
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The top client barrier to veterinary care is financial. Clients have reported their desire for more payment options with recent research findings indicating that with them, pet families could double the amount they could spend on lifesaving care. Research in 2022 reviewed cash and credit challenges that contribute to financial barriers and analyzed one option yet did not have direct engagement with clinics. This current study collected and analyzed data from 16 clinics to identify clinic and client impacts of expanded payment options in veterinary medicine. Clinics added at least one Varidi® payment option disassociated with a credit check of any kind. Clients reported why they used the payment option and the likelihood of alternatives they would have faced in the absence of having the option. Clinics overwhelmingly offered the option that guaranteed payment to the clinic. The average term was 9 months. Most using the option were existing clients of the clinic, sought sick, injury, surgery or end-of-life care, and received care at clinics offering credit-based financing. More than 1 in 3 cases (35.8%) faced a severe break in the Human-Animal Bond such as giving up their pet or putting their pet to sleep in the absence of the payment option. Combined with cases where the client was "Very Likely" to seek a lower cost option elsewhere, provide less care for their pet or treat their pet on their own, 52% of cases met this risk to the clinic-client-patient relationship, impacting clinic revenue and professional goals.
Keywords: human-animal bond, Veterinary care, access to veterinary care, veterinaryrelationship, Payment options
Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cammisa and Hill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Heather Cammisa, heather@opendoorconsults.org
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