Pet Insurance

[Auto-generated.] good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking some time out of your busy schedule to learn a little bit about, some of the voluntary benefits that, Mercer is providing for Cornell employees. More specifically, we're going to talk about what's available in terms of pet insurance and auto and home.

When we think about voluntary benefits, we think about ways that it provides additional protection for employees. As much as we like to plan. There can be unanticipated expenses. So voluntary benefits certainly help in that regard. The other area where voluntary benefits help is it healthily saves an employee time and money. It gives you an opportunity to purchase a program.

It could be an individual product. Pensions and Long Island home or individual products. But when you're purchasing them because of your employment relationship with Cornell, you're actually saving money because you're getting what we call a group discount. And those are specially negotiated rates, that are in place for Cornell employees with voluntary benefits. We like the opportunity that that coverage can be tailored so that you can look at something that meets, you know, your budget needs.

We're going to talk we can talk about that both in the vein of auto and home insurance as well as pet insurance. If I think about auto and home insurance based on the states, there's mandated coverage levels for certain types of protection. But then above and beyond those mandated coverage levels, you have an opportunity to pick a coverage level that you're comfortable with and meet your budget considerations.

Again, the programs we're going to talk about are auto and home insurance. Our renter's insurance and pet insurance. Oftentimes, you know, individuals who rent may not have the same concerns because, you know, you don't own the structure. However, if you really, you know, spend time thinking about the investments that you've made and all the articles that are that are in your property, your furnishings, your clothing, etc., or jewelry, what have you.

You want to make sure that those items are also equally as protected. And that's where renter's insurance comes into play.

First we'd like to talk about the program we have available for auto and home and renters. Again what we do here at Mercer is on our platform. We have several national insurance companies that are available to receive quotes from. And those include United States carriers such as Progressive, Liberty Mutual, Farmers Group select, and Travelers. When I'm referring to farmers group select, that used to be coverage that was offered through MetLife.

They sold that business to farmers. So again, some of the advantages of taking a look and getting a quote, from your program with Cornell is that you would be receiving multiple layers of discounts. There's a group discount because you're an employee of Cornell. There's a discount by purchasing the program through payroll deduction. And in the event that you have multiple cars or you choose to place your home insurance in your car insurance with the same partner, there's also multi-line discounts.

there's different opportunities depending upon how someone likes to work of procuring a quote for auto and home insurance. We have an online tool where you can go in and get an auto quote yourself. You can. You're going to put data into that tool. It's going to pop up quotes for you from all of the vendor partners on our platform.

So you can do a side by side comparison if you would prefer not to do it yourself through use of technology. You can contact one of our licensed representatives. Even if you choose to do a little dabbling yourself in terms of our tool for, to get an auto quote. If you do see something that you like, you still have to contact our service center to speak with a licensed representative to bind that quote.

We do not have a tool for home insurance that's a little bit more complicated. So again, if you're interested in renter's insurance or home insurance, the only way to procure those kinds of quotes is by speaking with one of our licensed representatives. In addition to auto and home, individuals could have other things that need to be insured.

That could be a motorcycle. It could be a recreational vehicle. It could be watercraft. All of those kinds of things are also available through our program. So in the event that, you know, you are thinking about buying something like that, or perhaps you have something like that, it would make sense to take a look at what we have available.

One of the things about auto and home insurance and renter's insurance, which is different from many of the other kinds of benefits that you have available by virtue of your employment, is auto and home. Your renewals come up at various times through the course of the year, so it's not something that you have to think about in terms of a plan.

Year beginning one one. It's a function of, you know, when your renewals are coming up. If you're currently not participating in any of the plans that are offered through Cornell, when you get your renewal from your current vendor partner. And if you're not happy with it for whatever reason. At that point, I would encourage you to look at what's available, through what we have a currently available, under the umbrella of Cornell.

What I would encourage you is when you're either going online to get an auto quote or speaking with one of our licensed representatives, it's best to have your current declarations page available to you, because the one thing or whether you're using the online tool or speaking with one of our representatives, you're going to want to make sure that we're able to give you an apples to apples quote to what you have today, to see how it compares from a cost standpoint.

In terms of like how these programs work, there's two different ways that this type of program might be, pertinent for you. One is if you want to compare existing coverage, you have to see whether or not there is other coverage available for you. Perhaps even enhanced coverage at a better rate. The other is maybe you've purchased a new car.

You've purchased a new home. You now have a teenage driver that you need to add to your policy. Which, from what I gather, can be quite expensive. So whenever there's any change, if you will, to that existing coverage, this program is available to you to compare to what you have today, or even if you have the program today and you're making some differences.

You're purchasing a new car. You're purchasing a new home. Before perhaps you want to make that decision about a vehicle. You want to see what it would cost you from an insurance perspective. That's what our counselors are. They're available for you. What we do is that we look across all of our clients, and particularly on the auto insurance side, we take a look at what we are saving our consumers, if you will, and the average savings across all of our clients.

And that's when, that employee tells us what they're currently paying for auto insurance and what we're able to procure for them. The average annual savings is almost $762 a year.

So I would encourage you, if if again, you have any dissatisfaction with your current insurer, you've gotten a renewal that perhaps is, not sitting well with you. And, you know, you want to just look at what else is available. I encourage you to either use the online tool or speak to one of our representatives. It will just take a few minutes of your time.

There's no obligation. There's no obligation to buy anything. So if you take a look, whether it's online or you're speaking with someone and you're not finding something that you're comfortable with, again, there's no obligation. It's just a few minutes of your time to see what else is available for you.

Renter's insurance. You know, we briefly talked about you know, one of the things that we find is that, you know, individuals who rent may or may not know the value of having renter's insurance if for some reason, the property that you're residing in becomes, you know, you can't inhabit it for whatever reason, something has happened. There's been a fire or what have you, your contents within that property, are not going to be covered unless you have renter's insurance.

So again, you know, thinking about like the stuff you have, your furnishings, your clothing, your jewelry, etc., you know, that's not covered unless you have chosen to get renter's insurance. It is very affordable. On average, it's around $15 a month.

So again, that provides you with additional protection for that investment that you have made in your personal property.

You know, another way to think about it is in looking at that $15 a month, you know, potential cost that might be the equivalent of three lattes at, you know, your favorite coffee shop. Since quality has been going up, maybe that's now two lattes. Or it's actually less than the national average cost to purchase two movie tickets.

So, again, if you happen to be a renter, one of the things that you want to think about is in the event that there was some situation where that property was not inhabitable because something happened. Are you protected for that investment you've made for the contents within that property?

One of the other benefits that's available for Cornell is pet insurance. The pet insurance provider is Nationwide. And Nationwide has coverage for things like just accidents or illness, hereditary and congenital conditions and wellness programs. We're going to talk a little bit about some of the changes nationwide has made to their plans that actually provide employees now with more choice with this particular pet insurance program.

You don't have to use any particular veterinarian. That veterinarian just has to be, licensed. So it's not like medical insurance, where maybe you're choosing to use a particular medical provider because they're a network. This particular program of Nationwide does not require you to use any particular veterinarian. So you can use whatever veterinarian you've already used, or someone perhaps has been recommended to you in addition to the insurance component.

There's also a telehealth support program. Let's say, you know you have a pet. Let's let's use an example of a dog that maybe has just eaten chocolate or eaten raisins or something that can cause serious, a serious situation in terms of kidney failure, etc. if you have this particular program, you have that 24 over seven telehealth support where you could call someone and they could recommend for you what you could do with your pet, or if, in fact, perhaps you need to take your pet to an emergency vet

in the event that your pet needs prescriptions.

There is 50% off pet subscription pet prescriptions. The Nationwide Pet Express program. And then there's certainly savings if you choose to have your pet treated at Petco Veterinary Service Clinic. There is additional savings that's available for you with this program.

Nationwide is one of the few insurers that covers what they call exotics, and that could include birds.

It could include reptiles, etc. in addition to dogs and cats, there are some pet insurers that only provide coverage for dogs and cats. But Nationwide also handles exotics similar to what we talked about with online home insurance. This is the type of program that you can choose to enroll in at any time throughout the course of the year.

Maybe you're interested in, adopting or buying a puppy, you know, a Labrador retriever or something, and you're thinking about getting insurance for them. You would have an opportunity to find out, like what that insurance would likely cost for that particular breed of dog. And the age of the dog, as well as where you reside.

You know, how has pet insurance work? Once you've chosen to enroll in pet insurance. So we're going to talk a little bit about where you go to enroll in order when home renter's or pet insurance. Once you're enrolled in the program, let's say your animal has taken ill. Again, you can go to any that as long as there are a licensed veterinarian, you know, anywhere.

Get whatever services are needed for your pet, and then you submit a claim. And then what happens once you submit a claim

you will get reimbursed based upon that reimbursement schedule from Nationwide. With Nationwide, there are animal maximums. There are also deductibles. So after Nationwide looks at the type of coverage it you have chosen to purchase, they will then be able to reimburse you based on that that vets expenses, if you will.

And the claim forms can be downloaded. From that the particular site that we're providing here, this also appears on our site that we have set up for Cornell. And we'll tell you a little bit about that. So it's very easy. This can all be handled digitally. You don't have to put anything in the mail. So again if you would want that type of digital service, if you will, you would be creating an account on their member portal.

And then you would be able to submit your claims that way and also track the reimbursements from those claims.

One of the things that that Nationwide did, starting in May of this year, is they took a look at the kinds of programs that they were offering, and they decided, it would really be best to give consumers choice. And by choice, I mean, does a consumer perhaps only want to purchase accident coverage for their pet? Do they want it to be accident and illness?

Do they want a wellness component? What annual deductible are they interested in and what reimbursement level? So what Nationwide did is they reconfigured what was available for employees. So you could take a look at your particular pet or pet and what type of coverage, you know, based upon your knowledge of the pet in their health to date, what type of coverage that you feel you would like to purchase for them, and then take a look at what that would cost.

So there are ways within Nationwide, you know, if you get a quote for, let's say, accident, illness and wellness, and you're looking at the affordability of that program from a budget perspective on a monthly basis, and you feel that it's a little higher then you know what your discretionary income would provide. You have that opportunity to then customize that quote.

And the way you would bring down that price would be looking at a different reimbursement level. So let's say if that quote was at 80% and you're looking for a lower price, you could go down the 50% or 70% to see whether or not that fits your budget. You also would have an opportunity to look at that annual deductible.

So again, the higher your deductible is, the lower the price would be. And again, that is customizable between 100 and $500 with Nationwide.

So again the options are accident only coverage accident and illness. Whether or not you want wellness. Now with wellness that really literally relates to things like, vaccinations that pets need on some frequent basis, whether it's annually or with rabies shots.

Sometimes it's a couple years. But again, if you want coverage for those kinds of things for your pet, you would want to choose, wellness, or you'd want to take a look at what adding wellness to your policy would cost.

But again, this program is designed so that again, a consumer has an option to select what makes the most sense for their pet given their pets health.

And also, what is affordable on a monthly basis.

One of the things about all these benefits that we've just talked about is they're all available for you to make purchases, and the cost of these programs come out of your paycheck. So payroll deduction is available. There is one caveat on that. One of our auto and home vendor partners is Progressive.

And with Progressive the only, payment option that's available is direct bill.

But again, what would happen is all of the dollars that that are relative to the cost for these programs, it comes out of your paychecks. So again, with a monthly, premium, if you're paid twice a month, you would take that monthly premium and you would see that deduction come out equally for each of those particular paychecks, etc..

We also are offering 24 seven online portals that include decision support tools. And again, there is assistance through our licensed benefits counselors. So if you would, you know, prefer to speak to someone versus look at what available what data is available online for your particular question. We've got Asakusa out there and all sorts of helpful information about every one of the plans.

If you would prefer not to necessarily peruse that information at your convenience, you can always stop to talk to one of our licensed benefit counselors.

In order to learn more about all of these programs we just talked about, I invite you to visit the voluntary benefits portal that we have set up for Cornell, and that's Cornell voluntary benefits.com.

You can also call our employee service center, and we're indicating the phone number there. We have elongated hours, during the week, hours that extend beyond most individuals normal workdays. There's also Saturday hours available to speak to one of our licensed counselors.