Alpine Equine Hospital Financial Credit policy 2025-updated Sept 19, 2025
At Alpine Equine we strive to deliver the best care for your horse at a reasonable price. To help make payment easy, we accept several payment options, including cash, checks and all the major credit cards plus Care Credit. Our payment guidelines and policies are as follows:
- Payment is due at the time services are rendered and in full upon receipt of statement. This helps keep our administrative costs down, allowing us to focus our energy on customer service and providing superb equine veterinary care.
- Customers may pay via cash, check, debit, credit card or CareCredit with approval. We take Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express. Care Credit applications are available at the office and in the field. In order to be valid, credit cards must be signed by the card owner. Clients are required to keep a credit card on file.
To partially offset credit card processing fees, Alpine Equine will implement a 2% credit card processing fee on all Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Amex payment transactions effective October 27, 2025. This fee may change in the future as bank processing fees change over time. At For those payment plans approved and processed with Care credit, we will be applying a 3.5% fee for Care Credit plans to partially cover the costs of those transactions. Thank you for your understanding regarding these fees.
How can you avoid credit card processing fees?
Clients wishing to avoid any processing fees can make payments made using Zelle, debit card, cash or check at the time of service. You can avoid a credit card processing fee by easily setting up any one of these alternative payment methods.
Alpine will not profit from these credit card processing charges. We will continue to absorb a substantial portion of the credit card fees assessed by the credit card carriers.
- Critical care cases can be expensive. Billing for critical care patients may involve a 50% downpayment on admission with full payment at discharge. We strive to offer level of medical and surgical care your horse needs. We provide a daily communication with hospitalized cases to inform you of their condition and progress as well as your horse's care costs. Being prepared financially for an unexpected emergency can ease the emotional burden when making decisions for the well-being of your horse when urgent care is required. Please consider possible medical financial support options such as an insurance policy, an emergency credit card or other alternative that might help ease the financial strain when dealing with a medical emergency.
Effective communication and understanding of practice fees and financial policy are vital elements in establishing and maintaining a rewarding professional relationship between our clients and dedicated team. Most of our fees are predictable, and can be readily quoted prior to seeing your horse. Others such as those requiring emergency or extensive diagnostic procedures can only be estimated. All clients are sincerely encouraged to discuss the costs of necessary procedures with us prior to their administration to avoid any misunderstandings.
Client Registration Form
A fully completed and signed welcome and credit card form must be in our files for us to provide veterinary care (routine or emergency) for a patient. We update these forms in our files annually. If we haven't seen your horse(s) in the last 12months, we ask you to complete this form prior to or at your next visit.
Payment of fees
Fees are payable at the time of veterinary service for clients without preauthorized Care Credit. We accept payments in cash or by check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American express, Care Credit or Zelle. Invoices and reciepts are mailed or emailed when payments are made via credit cards.
New clients are required to complete and return our Credit Card Authorization Form if they will not be paying by check at the time of service. A copy of your bill and credit card receipt will be mailed or emailed to you depending on your wishes.
Invoices
Invoices and patient summaries where appropriate are e-mailed or emailed after each veterinary visit. Our doctors and staff is always available to discuss your horse's medical billing statements.
Statements
Our computer billing cycle closes on the last day of each month when statements that summarize outstanding invoices and the total balance due on account are mailed.
Finance Charges
All overdue accounts are charged 24% interest per annum (charged as 2% monthly) if payment in full is not received by the last day of the billing month.
Past Due Accounts
Accounts with any portion of an outstanding balance over 30 days from date of service are considered past due. Past due balances (more than 30 days from date of service) are automatically billed to your credit card at the end of each monthly billing cycle. We do not bill beyond 30 days without approved credit.
Returned Checks
A fee of $25.00 is charged for each check returned for non-payment.
Is your horse insured?
- We recommend a cost effective equine insurance policy to help defray the costs of an unwanted emergency. Check out https://www.aspcapetinsurance.com. We look forward to serving you and your horse if the needs arise. If your horse is insured, please plan on paying for our veterinary services directly. We do not bill insurance companies - only patient owners. We strive to complete insurance paperwork once received in a timely manner. Insurance arrangements do not affect when payment for veterinary services is due.
Leasing a Horse?
If you plan to enter into a lease arrangement with another party, please let us know before the lease period begins. We are only able to change billing parties once both parties involved in the lease have contacted our office to authorize us to make adjustments (this process can be accomplished by phone). We are not able to make retroactive billing changes.
Billing or Appt Questions?
We are always available in the office weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm. Please call our office desk at 970-379-7100 option 2