Missouri vet school offers clinical pathology residents a concurrent Master of Education degreeAAHA survey finds 86% of DVMs adjust treatment plans weekly over client cost concernsVet Intel acquires Antelligence, consolidating veterinary benchmarking data providersAAHA published separate canine diabetes guidelines for the first timeEstrus heifer platelets doubled embryo hatching rate in lab IVF trialMost practices sit on client data they never open. Here's the revenue left behind.6.6 million horses, 2 million households, and the R&D math that never closed, until nowClinic prescription revenue fell 6.1 points in one year. Here's the category math that matters.Missouri vet school offers clinical pathology residents a concurrent Master of Education degreeAAHA survey finds 86% of DVMs adjust treatment plans weekly over client cost concernsVet Intel acquires Antelligence, consolidating veterinary benchmarking data providersAAHA published separate canine diabetes guidelines for the first timeEstrus heifer platelets doubled embryo hatching rate in lab IVF trialMost practices sit on client data they never open. Here's the revenue left behind.6.6 million horses, 2 million households, and the R&D math that never closed, until nowClinic prescription revenue fell 6.1 points in one year. Here's the category math that matters.
The WireBy The VeterinaryPracticeNow Desk3 min readSeptember 8, 2026
AAHA survey finds 86% of DVMs adjust treatment plans weekly over client cost concerns
The figure comes from a Pawlicy Advisor and AAHA survey that also found 13% of euthanasias are performed because owners can't afford treatment.
Eighty-six percent of veterinarians adjust their recommended treatment plans at least once a week because of client cost concerns, according to a survey published by Pawlicy Advisor and the American Animal Hospital Association.
What the 86% is made of
The figure comes from the "State of the Industry: The Impact of Pet Insurance on U.S. Veterinary Practices in 2026" report. Veterinary professionals reported having an average of 4.4 difficult financial conversations per week, up from 4.0 per week in last year's survey.
When asked about the price point at which recommended care is declined, 85% of survey respondents reported $1,000 or less. Forty-seven percent reported clients declining care costing $500 or less.
Respondents also reported that an average of 13% of euthanasias were performed because pet owners were unable to afford treatment.
The insurance adoption gap
Most respondents, 87%, agreed that pet insurance helps clients accept recommended care, with 73% observing better treatment compliance when caring for insured pets. But only 39% of teams often discuss insurance with pet owners.
Almost 70% of survey respondents reported barriers to discussing pet insurance with clients. The two most significant barriers were insufficient time during appointments, at 27.7%, and uncertainty about which insurance provider to recommend, at 21.5%. Eight in 10 reported feeling uncomfortable recommending a specific insurance provider because of the legal risks of doing so without an insurance license.
Woody Mawhinney, chief executive officer of Pawlicy Advisor, said in the report: "What's preventing veterinary teams from discussing insurance doesn't appear to be skepticism in the product, but what many believe is the time the conversation takes and the fear that the conversation will end in a request for a policy recommendation that veterinary professionals aren't licensed to answer."
What the survey does not tell you
The report does not break out the 86% by practice type, ownership structure, or geography, so we don't know whether corporate-employed associates and independent-practice DVMs are modifying plans at the same rate. It also does not specify what "adjust" means clinically, whether that's dropping a diagnostic, staging a procedure differently, or substituting a less expensive drug.
The survey also does not track how often the modified plan produces a worse outcome, or how often the DVM's first recommendation would have changed the case. That gap matters, because the moral-injury conversation in this profession hinges on whether we're compromising care or offering a range of clinically acceptable options.
What this means for a three-doctor practice
If your DVMs are each having the 4.4 cost conversations per week the survey reports, those conversations add up across the practice, and if 85% of them involve estimates at or below $1,000, the issue is not the emergency surgery that costs five figures. The issue is the routine diagnostic workup, the dental with extractions, the staged treatment plan for the chronic case.
That $1,000 threshold sits right where payment plans, CareCredit, and pet insurance positioning all come into play, and the survey data suggests most practices are not having the insurance conversation early enough or often enough to change the outcome. Sixty percent of respondents said a comparison marketplace staffed by licensed experts is most likely to help clients choose the right coverage, and 57% reported being interested in free resources from an independent pet insurance marketplace.
The 86% figure confirms what every associate knows from Tuesday morning's appointment block, but it also names the specific workflow gap. The insurance conversation is happening too late, if it happens at all, and the legal-risk concern around recommending a specific provider is real enough that eight in 10 DVMs won't do it. The practices that solve for that gap, whether through a third-party comparison tool or a staff member with an insurance license, are the ones that will move the 4.4 weekly conversations off the associate's plate and back into the estimate-acceptance process where they belong.
The complete report is available on Pawlicy Advisor's website.
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