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Pet health-care biz booms
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October 30, 1997: 3:55 p.m. ET
One entrepreneur redefines the meaning of preventative care for pets
From Correspondent John Defterios
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Owning pets can be expensive, especially when that includes health care. On average, cats and dogs cost their owners $1,200 a year - and pet insurance may not always help.
"You'll get a dog that is up around eight or nine years in age … and the insurance company excludes this, excludes that," says New Jersey-based veterinarian Steven Hodes.
That is where entrepreneur Jay Bloom comes in. Bloom started his own company last year called Pet Assure. Different from insurance, it's a membership program which offers a flat 25 percent discount across the board on pet health care.
The program helps people like Robin Halpern, who signed all three of her cats up for Pet Assure -- $99 a year for the first pet, $79 for the others.
"This is for two of my guys -- a $212 bill -- and the discount helped me out tremendously, because it was like $75 off of that," said Halpern.
But Dr. Hodes, who is a participating member of Pet Assure, worries people might think it's insurance when it's not -- it's a flat discount plan.(QuickTime Movie 1.7M)
Bloom isn't worried as his business is growing much faster than he anticipated. In September, the company turned profitable and Bloom wants to take it public next year. In the meantime, he's just trying to keep it in perspective.
"We're each doing the work of at least four people, sometimes more, and it's nice to be able to reach down and pet your dog on the head to just relieve some of the stress," said Bloom.
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Pet Assure
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