A new survey from Synchrony (Parent Company of CareCredit & Pets Best Pet Insurance) indicates that the lifetime cost of care ranges from $20K-$55K for dogs and $15K-$45K for cats! Also, most pet owners have no idea that this is the case. 4 our of 5 pet owners will face unexpected veterinary bills. What does this mean for veterinary professionals, who often bear the brunt of pet owner anger when financial limitations to care arise?
In this episode, Dr. Andy Roark is joined by Jonathan Wainberg (Synchrony General Manager & Senior Vice President, Pet) to discuss the findings of the study, what is realistic when it comes to setting pet owner expectations for the cost of pet ownership, and how to have financial conversations that encourage financial planning on the part of pet owners.
You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts!
LINKS
Synchrony Study Reveals Pet Owners Spend as Much as $55,000 during a Pet’s Lifetime
https://www.carecredit.com/pressrelease/lifetime-of-care-study/
Language of Veterinary Care (AVMA Membership Required):
https://www.synchrony.com/groundbreaking-new-language-of-veterinary-care-research.html
CareCredit: https://www.carecredit.com/providers/
What’s on my Scrubs?! Card Game: https://drandyroark.com/training-tools/
Dr. Andy Roark Swag: drandyroark.com/shop
All Links: linktr.ee/DrAndyRoark
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Jonathan Wainberg (General Manager, Senior Vice President, Pet – Synchrony) brings over 15 years of financial services expertise, and a record of commercial ingenuity, market expansion and energetic leadership driving revenue growth to his role as CareCredit’s General Manager, Senior Vice President, Pet.
In this newly established vertical, Jonathan will lead CareCredit’s expansion of the veterinarian credit business, pet insurance and additional market adjacencies.
Prior to this, Jonathan served as SVP, General Manager GAP. He joined Synchrony following a 15-year tenure with GE Capital, where he was the Senior Managing Director, Global Sales for Industrial Finance in London. He was a key member of the senior leadership team building a new captive finance business for the reorganized and streamlined GE Capital.
Jonathan developed the strategy and led the efforts that allowed GE to provide financing support to global customers in new markets, surpassing sales targets by more than 30%. With on-the-ground roles in the US, Europe and Asia, he’s managed teams around the world and delivered complex strategies in more than 50 countries.
Earlier, Jonathan joined GE Capital in Corporate Finance in New York, ultimately becomingManaging Director, responsible for the Eastern US, Canada and private equity firms, in 2012. As Managing Director, Jonathan originated, structured and negotiated leveraged loans and highly structured financings for leveraged buyouts, re-financings, expansions and restructurings of middle market and large cap retail companies. He was a top individual sales contributor from 2007-2010.
Jonathan has an MBA from Georgetown University and a BA in History with a concentration in Marketing from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He began his career in the executive training program at Macy’s in New York, where he also had various merchant/management roles.
Jonathan is a native of Canada, with a dual US-Canada citizenship. He has traveled to over 85 counties, enjoys entertaining, wine and playing with his energetic 2-year-old son. While based in Costa Mesa, Jonathan currently resides in Bal Harbour, Florida with his wife and son, Jonathan will relocate to Southern California soon.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Andy Roark:
Welcome everybody to the Cone of Shame Veterinary Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Andy Roark. Guys, I got a good one for you today. I am talking about the cost of having a pet. This is a topic that I think is super important. I think we need to be more upfront about what it really costs to have a pet, so that pet owners have realistic expectations going in. I don’t think any of us like surprising pet owners with what it costs, but the only way to avoid that is for them to have that knowledge, hopefully, before we come into hard money conversations.
Dr. Andy Roark:
So that is what I aspire to. That’s what I would like to see more of is a more open dialogue about what pet ownership really costs. CareCredit and their parent company, Synchrony, have released the results from a survey that they did. It’s 1,200 pet owners talking about what does it really cost to have a dog or cat for the life of that pet? That is what we were breaking down today.
Dr. Andy Roark:
It’s me and Jonathan Wainberg, who is the general manager and senior VP for Synchrony, which is CareCredit and Pets Best Pet Insurance. So anyway, good episode, good insight, really thoughtful discussion. Guys, let’s get into this.
Dr. Andy Roark:
This episode of the Cone of Shame Veterinary Podcast is made possible ad free by CareCredit.
Kelsey Beth Carpenter:
(Singing) This is your show. We’re glad you’re here. We want to help you in your veterinary career. Welcome to the Cone of Shame with Dr. Andy Roark.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Welcome to the podcast, Jonathan Wainberg. How are you?
Jonathan Wainberg:
I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Oh man, it’s my pleasure. For those who don’t know you, you are the general manager, senior vice president for Synchrony, which is a company that is over CareCredit, which pretty much everybody in the vet profession knows, and also Pets Best Pet Insurance. So you guys, you do a lot of things with the financial side of money. And so I was thrilled to be able to have you on the podcast.
Jonathan Wainberg:
Yeah, great to be here. Synchrony is a large financial institution. We’re actually a bank and we specialize in consumer finance. And one of our divisions is Synchrony Health and Wellness, which is really the part of this that Pet CareCredit resides in. And like you said, everyone knows CareCredit in the veterinary profession, and CareCredit is really the largest elective healthcare solution for consumers in the US. And just over three years ago, we made the decision to expand our veterinary finance specialty by purchasing Pets Best. And so it’s been just over three years and it’s been a great acquisition and shows our commitment to this space.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, you guys are really kind of leading the way in helping pet owners afford pet care, really. When we talk about what options are out there and what support there are for them, you guys are kind of, you’re an 800-pound gorilla in that space, which is good. It’s an important space.
Jonathan Wainberg:
Yeah. Listen, I think we’ve been in this business a long time. CareCredit is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, and we’ve been in the veterinary space for approximately 27 years. And so when you’ve been around that long, people know you and trust you for generations, whether it’d be someone who’s been caring for their pet and using their card over the course of a lifetime of their pet family members, or for that matter if it’s their first time, or over the various lives of your pets.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And then I think the other thing is we’re a work hard that is not just limited to the veterinary channel. You can use it for human health as well. And so it’s very often that someone takes out CareCredit for perhaps something in the dentistry field like orthodontistry for your child. And then you find out, “Oh, this also works in the vet channel.” And so you have that cross-utility.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And so that has enabled us to build a good business. And in my case, provide a great alternative for helping pet parents afford some of those costs that come along in the veterinary channel.
Dr. Andy Roark:
I want to get into some research that you guys put out earlier this year and you guys have a study and it was on pet owners spending. And the title is Synchrony study reveals pet owners spend as much as $55,000 during a pet’s lifetime. And I want to talk to you about this because the study itself is really interesting. I want to lay down the methodology you guys use because I think it’s really well done. I think the findings, I was surprised by the findings to be honest.
Dr. Andy Roark:
And they make sense to me, but even I was sort of backed up a little bit by the numbers that you guys put down. I’ve been thinking a lot about this because we’re seeing changes in vet medicine and we’ve got a lot of student debt for veterinarians and we’re seeing veterinarian salaries rising, which is good. And we’re seeing technician support staff salaries rising, which is good and it needs to happen.
Dr. Andy Roark:
But you can’t look at those things and not also look at where does this money sort of come from and what does this ultimately mean and kind of look down the chain at the pet owner and think, what is care for or what does affordability and access to that medicine look like?
Dr. Andy Roark:
And that’s been a head space that I’ve been playing in a lot. I don’t pet owners largely have an idea of what the financial commitment is to having a pet. And I think that as medicine costs go up and food costs go up and inflation and all those sorts of things, I think it’s less and less true.
Dr. Andy Roark:
I was playing around with my own dog and he’s a three-year-old totally healthy dog. And I started running the numbers and I was like if I just did the basic wellness care on him and nothing bad happened to him, no hotspots, no allergy stuff, no ear infections, nothing, just basic parasiticides. If I said grocery store dog food, I’m still at a thousand dollars plus in maintaining a goofy, totally healthy dog. I don’t think that people recognize that. Do you agree?
Jonathan Wainberg:
Oh, I absolutely agree. I think the study, which we commissioned, which we call the lifetime of care because that’s what we’re trying to ascertain, is what does that cost? And I think there’s several points you hit on which make a ton of sense. I think the first thing is like you, as an expert in this field, and someone who’s in the profession yourself, you don’t realize what you’re spending because you don’t look at it in a one by sample, even if you had a dog that required or a pet that required maybe more care and more medical care than the average.
Jonathan Wainberg:
It’s done in chunks, so you don’t realize how it adds up. And then you see this number that we came up with, not we came up with, that we surveyed 1,200 pet owners and a hundred veterinarians, is as much as $55,000. And that’s a really big number because it’s not all in one shot, number one. Number two, to your point that saying that most people don’t realize it. Our study showed that nearly half of pet parents underestimate that cost of what you’re going to be spending on your pet.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And so you can really see that you’re not alone. And you’re probably on the higher echelon of people that understand this profession, understand the cost. I agree with you a hundred percent. There’s a major issue with veterinarians and student debt and with vet techs. And it’s great to see that hopefully not the debt going up, but the salaries going up and their ability to manage that. That’s a problem in our profession.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And it’s hard because you know better than me as someone really deeply into the profession, the passion that people have for this and the choices that you make. But what I’d say is that the vet industry is no different than things we’re seeing across the economy now, and we’re seeing inflation. And there’s a lot of inflation in the cost of care for the animals, some of it to make up perhaps for the human resources cost. But a lot of it ever also has to do with the demand that veterinarians are under with so many more people having pets and the ability really, it’s the competition numbers.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah. I agree with that. So, let’s lay down some numbers here. The lifetime cost of care, according to the survey, comes down to $20,000 to $55,000 for dogs and $15,000 to $45,000 for cats. And I thought it was also really fascinating looking at just the first year of life, $1,300 to $2,800 for dog owners and $960 to $2,500 for cat owners in the first year alone.
Jonathan Wainberg:
Yeah. And that’s the first year. And I think what we’re seeing is in the first year you’re going to have startup costs. I think everyone kind of understands that and is prepared to some degree, but it’s the stuff that comes later. And even those startup costs are more than you think. Just acquiring a dog and these sort of things that you capture. So yes, the first year expenses, obviously getting the pet, vaccinating it, home proofing it, training it, et cetera. Those are big. But when you start thinking about some of these annual costs, they add up very quickly.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah. I see frustration from veterinarians about financial conversations, because these are not fun conversations and pet owners get emotional about them. I see a lot of frustration from pet owners. I saw an interaction on the internet today and social media is a cess pool. But I was looking and someone had posted and said how dare these veterinarians charge this money for my pet and they couldn’t do it. And someone else had written back and said, “It’s not their responsibility to pay for your pet. You had a responsibility when you took this pet.”
Dr. Andy Roark:
And I don’t endorse communicating that way online at all. I do understand the sentiment of both parties, both the person who’s like, “I was surprised they didn’t have the money, and this is heartbreaking and I’m upset.” And I also understand the pushback from the veterinary professional, who was like, “Hey man, we deal with this all day every day. And we don’t have the resources to just take care of this and absorb the costs ourselves. Even though we would love to, you have some responsibility here as well.”
Jonathan Wainberg:
That is absolutely right. And that’s why with this study and with the kind of financial solutions that we have out in the market, we think it addresses both things. Number one, the study of a lifetime of care is to really educate prospective pet parents about what they can expect in expenses over for caring so that they can prepare themselves financially.
Jonathan Wainberg:
When you bring a pet into your family, there’s responsibility that you need to have before. We think that those costs make sense, and it’s really worth it. We’re not trying to scare anyone. A couple times, people have asked me, “Well, are you trying to scare people from getting pets?” “Absolutely not. It’s the greatest thing to have a pet in your family, but we want you to be prepared before.”
Jonathan Wainberg:
And then on the other part of it with taking it from the veterinarian side, we know that these are not easy cost to absorb. And so what CareCredit tries to do is be able to provide solutions, whether it’d be the CareCredit card, or whether it’d be Pets Best Insurance that allows pet parents to prepare for those expenses, whether expected or unexpected and what we’re hoping is that they are expected, in a meaningful manner. And so that when something happens, they have that ability and the wherewithal to take care of that pet in the manner that it should be responsibly, and then also have great compliance to care because that’s everything.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And I’m sure you know and I’ve heard some of your other podcast that a pet that is taken to the vet more often is able to get their normal checkups and compliance of care is going to be a healthier pet. It’s probably going to be a less expensive pet to, for lack of a better word, maintain over its lifetime.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah. I think you hit on a controversial point. But you and I are in the same camp here. I wish these numbers weren’t true. I wish that it didn’t cost $25,000 to $55,000 to have a dog or $15,000 to $45,000 to have a cat. If I had a magic wand, I would make that not true. I would make it cost a thousand dollars over the lifetime of a pet. And I would go ahead and wipe out that veterinary student debt, and pay the tax a living wage. I would do all those things.
Dr. Andy Roark:
But I think a lot of people say, they look at these numbers and I’ve gotten push back on this because my thought was for a long time, we should tell people it costs a thousand dollars a year to have a healthy dog. And people are like, “What? Why would … Like that’s just off putting?” And I’m like, “That’s true.”
Dr. Andy Roark:
And it’s kind of like when we go in the exam room and we make recommendations, if you don’t tell people the truth, then they can’t make an educated decision. If I don’t say, “Hey, look, this is what it costs to treat heartworm disease. And this is the prevalence in our area. And your pet could die from heartworm disease. Do they really have the information they need to decide whether or not they want to make that purchase? And people say that’s sort of hard. And I sort of say, “Well, I want to give them the truth and help them to make the best decision.”
Dr. Andy Roark:
And I think that these numbers kind of fall into that same category of, “I wish this wasn’t the case. I wish I could tell you that heartworms aren’t going to hurt your dog, and that you can just give your dog some Benadryl for allergies and they’ll be fine.” But that’s not true. And the same thing is to say, to not set the expectation of this is what it costs, I don’t think that’s productive in the long term.
Dr. Andy Roark:
When we talk about angry clients, one of my favorite sayings is people don’t get mad about what you give to them. They get mad about the difference between what they got and what they expected to get. And so I think that even just setting the expectations, if people expect, “Yep, I am making this commitment and yep, it’s going to be expensive,” those conversations are a whole lot easier than then just being blissfully naive about what medicine costs. And they walk in with $300 and get their doors blown off.
Jonathan Wainberg:
Yeah. I think it’s important that we get through them in multiple channels. Obviously, the veterinary profession is going to be the one that … I hate to say the word bears the burden of this, but that’s the truth because you guys are the most trusted in the industry. Yeah, we could publicize these stats and go out there, but we’re never going to reach the 30 million US households, is what our study shows will face an unexpected pet expense.
Jonathan Wainberg:
There’s no way we’re going to get them. So you guys on the frontline are the ones that are going to have to bear of that. But also it’s the shelters that need to be kind of telling people, “Hey, it’s great that you’re adopting this pet. We love that you’re taking it,” but hey, with that comes a responsibility, same thing with breeders and just the general industry as a whole.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And that’s why we did our part to message this study. This isn’t a commercial for CareCredit or Pets Best. Really, but we would make it a lot sexier, yeah, exactly. Maybe we would have the Bruno Mars sing the results. But I think it’s something that we want to get out there because we know that this is such a critical part of the industry.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And what we’re trying to do at the end of the day is yeah, sure, we’re in the business of providing healthcare and financial solutions in the healthcare space. But what would be much better for everyone is if they know beforehand what they’re getting into and are able to prepare for it in an orderly manner so that they’re not surprised and have to make tough decisions like, “Hey, do I have to pay this bill or make my car payment?” We don’t want anyone to be in that position.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah. I completely agree. The first time you end up at the emergency clinic and it’s $1,500, $2,000. That’s just like people’s heads explode. They hadn’t seen it coming. So that brings us to the actionable part of this. And actually, this is what I really want to talk with you about. What does a world look like where expectations like this are set? What do we do as medical professionals to try to bring this awareness to pet owners?
Jonathan Wainberg:
Listen, you have to hit people in on it in a, “Don’t hit anyone. This isn’t the Oscars.” You need to explain to people as much as possible and it has to be multiple times, especially for those first time pet owners. I think, we try as best as we can at whether it’d be pet adoption or that first puppy visit with the vet to talk about … That’s a great place to talk about pet insurance because you’re also getting the pet insurance at the best time for your dog or cat, because that’s when it’s going to be the most cost efficient if there’s not going to be preexisting conditions. And your premiums, you’ll get in at the right time. That’s just the way it works. The younger pet is going to be more affordable.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And so that’s one of the things where we at Pets Best try to certainly get adoption, and I think I’d say across the industry in that space. And in CareCredit also, we try to make it easier, as easy as we can because we don’t want you guys having that conversation. You’re so busy as it is, right? So we develop QR codes. We develop tags that say, “Hey, have this. We have educational videos.” But at the end of the day, there’s only so much that could be done virtually without that human touch. And you are the ones in the practice that are dealing with that kind of stressed out pet owner who is having to make that decision.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And yes, there’s certainly a lot of education we could do beforehand. But I think ultimately, there’s only so much that you can do to prepare someone for what is an unfortunate surprise when it comes to costs. And if you think about it in the US, it’s not like we’re much better in human health. People are not prepared for that. So I’d like to say, it’s something that’s unique to the pet industry. But the truth is it isn’t, and it just makes it harder because pets don’t speak and can’t tell you how they feel.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And so they can’t … Your guys are trying to translate two things, not just the cost, but how do you know that pet is feeling that way? And is this going to work or is this not going to work without being able to communicate verbally?
Dr. Andy Roark:
Right. And I think you make a good point about the vet professionals bearing the brunt, because I would add to that and say the emotional brunt of like, “I have to stand in the exam room and talk to people about the hard decisions they’re making and what things cost. And I don’t like that. And my technicians don’t want to bear that.” There’s an emotional toll, especially when you talk about, it’s not convenience euthanasia but financial euthanasia, things like that where people are … I mean, that takes a toll on me as well.
Dr. Andy Roark:
And so things that we can do to reduce that, the number of times I have those interactions, I’m all about that. I don’t think that there’s a magic formula that makes financial conversations go away. I do think that there are things that we can do systematically that reduce the number of hard conversations that we have in a sort of multimodal approach. And I think that we should be looking at those things.
Dr. Andy Roark:
When I look at this, I think that you’re right too. I don’t know what a high level spreading of this message looks like. Is it the AVMA’s place to sort of say to people, “Hey, by the way …” I don’t know that they would go for that. I don’t think that’s really the image that they want to have, but I do think it might help.
Dr. Andy Roark:
But I mean, is it time to come up with a graceful way to talk about financial planning for your pet at the puppy visits? Should we have resources when new clients come in and just sort of say, “Hey, these are things that we mention to people and try to start to put forward right from the very beginning”? And these can’t be one time conversations. People come in, they’ve got a new puppy, a new kitten, they get a whole folder. They get a whole truckload of information and they don’t retain 90% of it.
Dr. Andy Roark:
It needs to be a consistent message of, “Hey, this is important. Hey, you need to be thinking about that.” And I think that that’s an area that we as a profession, we have to work on like how do we communicate that? What do we say? How do we talk about in a way that normalizes the financial conversation around veterinary medicine?
Dr. Andy Roark:
Because I love the reputation that veterinarians have and sort of the James Herriot culture that we have, but it’s a double edged sword. And the downside to people saying, “Oh, the veterinarians, I love you guys. You have the biggest hearts. You’re the kindest people,” is that that can set us up to be the bad guy when we’re not able to deliver what this person wants just because we love pets. And I think a lot of us see that of, we enjoy the benefits of that reputation, but then we also take a beating from it.
Dr. Andy Roark:
My brother’s a lawyer and no one’s like, “I can’t believe that you charge for your services.” He’s a lawyer. They totally believe he charges for services. And I’m not saying that we should be lawyers, but I do think … No one’s advocating that.
Dr. Andy Roark:
But I do think that there is a middle path of saying we do care and we are compassionate. And you need to be aware that this is the landscape that you deal in, and that these are your options. Also, if you are breaking the news about what medicine costs to a pet owner at the time that they need financial resources, that’s a nightmare conversation. If they can get that message before they need it, then at least it’s not new information. They come in going, “Oh my gosh, I don’t know how I’m going to pay for this.” That’s a whole lot easier conversation than, “I can’t believe that this is what the bill is. This is outrageous.”
Jonathan Wainberg:
Yeah. I think two answers on that. On the languages and the do’s and don’ts as it comes to financial, we did do something with the AVMA to train veterinarians. And we do spend a lot of time because it isn’t … First of all, it isn’t a natural thing. They’re not trained to be in a business. Yeah, some of the office managers perhaps, but they’re doing something that they’re passionate about and it is hard to kind remove yourself and go back to the bottom line. So, I’m empathetic to the veterinarian who is looking at that pet and trying to figure out any which way to get them that care, even at their personal expense.
Jonathan Wainberg:
Now, with that said, the profession, as you said, as much debt as people are in and as much as we think that that cost of healthcare for our pets is high, it really probably isn’t at the level where it should be. And that’s where we as CareCredit want to be able to help. We want to take that conversation away by saying, “Okay.” And we will serve to some degree, I don’t want to say the bad guy in that space, but we’re the bank. That’s what we’re prepared to do. We’re the one who’s going to be able to lend the money. And we’re the ones that are able to have that harder conversation.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And what we try to do is take that as much as we can that conversation away from the vet by somebody’s self-service tools that we’ve developed. But also as a veterinarian shouldn’t be having receivables on their account from Dave Jones’s poodle, right? It should be … No one wins with that, right? And so that’s something that we got to, as a profession, kind of get away from because it just doesn’t make sense for anyone in the whole ecosystem.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah. I agree. So I’m going to put a link to the survey in the show notes so everybody can see that. Definitely, it’s very brief. It’s well put together. You guys check it out. It’s a lot of food for thought. Jonathan, where else would you send people? So if some people are sort of sitting and processing this and they want to increase the financial education that they’re able to provide to clients, things like that, what resources would you point them to?
Jonathan Wainberg:
I think on the carecredit.com site, we have a lot of learning and knowledge that can talk about that. And I think that’s something that you will get on that page. We have a special page that talks about that and talks about various expenses and costs that you have. You’re going to put a link into the lifetime of care study so that the people are prepared. We did a language of financial expenses with AVMA and those tools are available as well.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And I’d say if you’re someone who already accepts CareCredit and wants to learn more, we have resources and training available for all our providers in that provider network, and anything we can do in that space. Costs are going up. In 2020, they said there was $104 billion spent in the pet industry in the US. 2021, I just saw it came out at $123 billion. It’s almost 20% up. It’s going one direction.
Jonathan Wainberg:
And whether it’d be … It’s not just inflation, a lot of it is population, and that’s great. And a lot of it is also people investing more in their pet. We talk about the humanization of pets, but people are treating them at a different level of treatment in that family than they did in the past. And so people, it’s great to see that. But with that cost go up and you’re seeing that overall in our studies’ results.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, exactly. And well in the study, it says 7 out of 10 pet owners consider their pet as part of the family, just to your point. So anyway, I’m going to go ahead. I’ll put links to the survey in the show notes. I’ll also put links to CareCredit, and then I’ll also pull up the language of financial expenses that I think that’s a great resource. I’ll link all that stuff in the show notes. Jonathan, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your time.
Jonathan Wainberg:
Oh, no. It’s a delight.
Dr. Andy Roark:
And that is our episode. Guys, I hope you liked it. I hope you got something out of it. I hope it gave you something to think about. I think this stuff is really important. And again, it feels icky sometimes to talk about the numbers and talk about what pets really cost. But guys, we got to be honest with people and they need to know what they’re getting into. And so we need to start thinking about how to make pet owners more aware, just so they know what they’re signing up for. I think it’s only fair.
Dr. Andy Roark:
So guys, that’s it. That’s what I got. Thanks again to CareCredit for making this episode possible ad free. Guys, take care of yourselves. Talk to you later on. Bye.