Trupanion Lashes Nationwide Nonrenewals, But Silent On Own Stance
No answer from new Trup CEO: Can you assure every Trupanion policyholder and veterinarian today as CEO that Trupanion will never cancel or non-renew a policy other than for reason of nonpayment, fraud, or cancellation on the owner’s part?
Last week, Seattle-based pet insurer Trupanion, Inc. reported its second-quarter earnings. In her first earnings call as CEO Thursday evening, Margi Tooth, who came to the company in 2013 as a junior marketing associate and quickly climbed the ranks, spoke for the first time about the story TCR was first to report — Nationwide Pet’s non-renewals.
Reading from prepared opening remarks, Ms. Tooth skewered Nationwide’s non-renewals of what the company recently announced would be approximately 100,000 pets. (TCR’s reporting has the “impact” figure substantially higher when factoring in conditional renewals at just 50% coverage.)
She attributed Nationwide’s actions to “mispricing,” although Trupanion has had a series of questionable issues with its pricing, including complaints from policyholders that the company has repeatedly exceeded the maximum it assures policy holders it will never exceed in annual price hikes. This NBC News investigation last year from Gretchen Morgenson highlighted those price hikes and confronted Trupanion about those promises in an interview with Ms. Tooth: “I think we work very hard to ensure that we’re explaining our value proposition,” she told NBC.
Here’s what Ms. Tooth told Trupanion analysts on last week’s earnings call:
“In the same way the rate of veterinary inflation has tested the most established players, now over 100,000 pets are without coverage due to mispricing. This outcome is very unfortunate, both for the pets without coverage and the industry overall. It underscores the importance of Trupanion’s approach…Unlike competitors who attract customers with low prices for limited coverage, we prioritize delivering the best value by offering comprehensive coverage and higher claims payouts. This approach ensures pets receive the care they need resulting in higher customer satisfaction and exceptional lifetime value.”
Ms. Tooth made several additional comments about Nationwide’s non-renewals during the Question & Answer portion, prompting TCR to follow-up with her at the conclusion of the earnings call last Thursday evening via text message to her personal cell phone with the following “yes” or “no” question. To be sure she received it, we also sent the question to the personal email addresses of former Trupanion COO and board member Howard Rubin and Chairman of the Board Darryl Rawlings. They were given all of Friday and the weekend to respond.
“Can you assure every Trupanion policyholder and veterinarian today as CEO that Trupanion will never cancel or non-renew a policy other than for reason of nonpayment, fraud, or cancellation on the owner’s part?”
We have yet to receive a reply.
“We never want anyone to have a bad experience in a category that’s under penetrated,” Ms. Tooth said in response to a question posed by an analyst.
“We’re really leaning into early adopters and helping people to have that best experience from the outset…What we need to do is be able to get behind the veterinarians and help them reinforce the fact that players such as Trupanion are creating a product that’s sustainable. We’re the only people that do that, and that allows us to have a, a very clear vision for the lifetime of that pet…I think we’ll lean into the vet channel; we’ll continue to share the fact that we are here for the life of the pet, we’re here for them.”
Given Ms. Tooth’s statements about Trupanion’s reliable, long-lasting policy in contrast to Nationwide’s, asking Ms. Tooth to respond, “yes” or “no” unequivocally whether Trupanion would ever take the action of Nationwide against Trupanion policyholders for reasons other than nonpayment, fraud, or cancellation on the owner’s part seemed like a softball question Trupanion should have happily and easily answered.
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