Pet insurance covers the big stuff: emergency surgery, cancer treatment, broken bones, and chronic disease management. But what about the routine vet visits, vaccinations, dental cleanings, and flea prevention that make up the bulk of your annual veterinary spending? That is where a pet wellness plan comes in, and Pets Best wellness coverage is one of the most talked-about options on the market.
Pets Best offers two tiers of wellness coverage that can be added to any of their accident and illness insurance plans. These add-ons reimburse a portion of your preventive care expenses, including wellness exams, vaccinations, heartworm testing, flea and tick prevention, spay or neuter procedures, and more. But with monthly premiums adding to your overall pet insurance cost, the question every pet owner needs to answer is whether the math actually works in their favor.
In this guide, we break down exactly what Pets Best wellness coverage includes at each tier, how much it costs, how it compares to competitors like Embrace, Spot, and ASPCA, and who stands to benefit most from adding routine care coverage to their policy.
What Is Pet Wellness Coverage?
Before diving into Pets Best specifically, it helps to understand how pet wellness plans work and how they differ from standard pet health insurance. A traditional pet insurance policy covers accidents and illnesses: things like broken bones, ingesting foreign objects, infections, cancer, and chronic conditions. These are unpredictable events with potentially large veterinary bills.
A pet wellness plan, by contrast, covers predictable, routine veterinary care. This includes annual wellness exams, core vaccinations, parasite prevention, dental cleanings, bloodwork, urinalysis, and sometimes spay or neuter procedures. These are expenses you know you will incur every year as a responsible pet owner.
The key distinction is that pet insurance protects you from financial surprises, while a wellness plan spreads the cost of expected expenses across monthly payments. Some pet owners find the convenience of bundled monthly payments valuable, while others prefer to pay for routine care out of pocket and only insure against the unexpected. Understanding this difference is critical to deciding whether wellness coverage is worth adding to your plan.
Pets Best Wellness Coverage: Two Tiers Explained
Pets Best offers two levels of wellness coverage that can be added to any accident and illness insurance policy. Neither wellness tier is available as a standalone product. Here is what each tier includes:
EssentialWellness Plan
The EssentialWellness plan is the more affordable option and covers the basics of routine veterinary care. It provides an annual benefit schedule that reimburses set dollar amounts for specific preventive services. Covered items typically include one wellness exam per year, core vaccinations, one fecal test, heartworm testing, and a deworming treatment. The annual benefit limit for the EssentialWellness tier is approximately $305, and the monthly cost ranges from $16 to $26 depending on your location and the age of your pet.
BestWellness Plan
The BestWellness plan is the more comprehensive tier and adds coverage for spay or neuter procedures, dental cleaning, urinalysis, bloodwork panels, and microchipping on top of everything in the EssentialWellness tier. The annual benefit limit increases to approximately $535, with monthly premiums ranging from $26 to $36. For puppies and kittens that still need to be spayed or neutered and have their full vaccination series completed, this tier can represent meaningful savings during the first year of ownership.
| Coverage Item | EssentialWellness | BestWellness |
|---|---|---|
| Wellness Exam | Up to $50 | Up to $50 |
| Vaccinations | Up to $30 | Up to $60 |
| Fecal Test | Up to $25 | Up to $25 |
| Heartworm Test | Up to $30 | Up to $30 |
| Deworming | Up to $20 | Up to $20 |
| Dental Cleaning | Not covered | Up to $150 |
| Spay/Neuter | Not covered | Up to $100 |
| Bloodwork | Not covered | Up to $50 |
| Urinalysis | Not covered | Up to $25 |
| Microchip | Not covered | Up to $25 |
| Annual Benefit Limit | ~$305 | ~$535 |
| Monthly Cost | $16-$26 | $26-$36 |
Is Pets Best Wellness Coverage Worth the Cost?
This is the central question for most pet owners, and the answer depends on how your annual routine care spending compares to the premiums you would pay. Let us run the numbers for a typical scenario.
If you pay $26 per month for the BestWellness plan, that totals $312 per year in premiums. The maximum annual benefit is approximately $535. That means the plan can return up to $223 more than you pay in, but only if you use every single covered benefit to its maximum reimbursement. In reality, many pet owners will not use every category in a given year, which narrows the potential savings considerably.
For the EssentialWellness plan at $16 per month ($192 annually), the maximum return is $305, leaving a potential net benefit of $113. Again, this assumes full utilization of every covered service.
Wellness plans tend to deliver the most value during a pet's first year when vaccination series, spay or neuter surgery, and initial bloodwork all cluster together. For adult pets with established care routines, the savings margin becomes much thinner.
Who Benefits Most from Wellness Coverage?
Based on our analysis, wellness coverage from Pets Best makes the most financial sense for specific groups of pet owners:
- Puppy and kitten owners: New pets require a full vaccination series, spay or neuter surgery, microchipping, deworming, and initial bloodwork, all within the first year. The BestWellness plan can offset a substantial portion of these clustered costs, making a puppy wellness plan particularly valuable.
- Owners who want predictable monthly budgets: Some pet owners prefer spreading all pet care costs into a single monthly payment rather than paying larger lump sums at each vet visit. The convenience of knowing exactly what pet care will cost each month has real psychological value, even if the pure dollar savings are modest.
- Senior pet owners: Older dogs and cats benefit from more frequent bloodwork, urinalysis, and dental cleanings. If your veterinarian recommends annual or biannual diagnostic panels for your aging pet, the BestWellness plan can help offset those increasingly important preventive screenings.
- Owners in high-cost veterinary markets: If you live in an area where a single wellness exam costs $75 or more and a dental cleaning runs $400 or above, the reimbursement limits on the BestWellness plan become more meaningful relative to your actual spending.
How Pets Best Compares to Other Pet Wellness Plans
Pets Best is not the only insurer offering wellness coverage add-ons. Several competitors provide similar routine care options, each with different structures, benefit limits, and pricing. Here is how the leading pet insurance companies compare on their wellness offerings:
| Provider | Wellness Plan Name | Annual Benefit | Monthly Cost | Dental Coverage | Spay/Neuter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pets Best | BestWellness | ~$535 | $26-$36 | Up to $150 | Up to $100 |
| Embrace | Wellness Rewards | $250-$650 | $16-$52 | Included | Included |
| Spot | Gold/Platinum | $250-$450 | $10-$30 | Platinum only | Platinum only |
| ASPCA | Preventive Care | $225-$450 | $10-$25 | Basic tier | Prime tier |
| Nationwide | Whole Pet (built-in) | Included in plan | Bundled | Yes | Yes |
Embrace Wellness Rewards stands out because it functions more like a flexible spending account than a traditional benefits schedule. You choose an annual allowance ($250, $450, or $650), pay a corresponding monthly premium, and can apply that allowance toward any routine care expense. This flexibility means you can allocate more toward dental work one year and more toward diagnostics the next, rather than being locked into preset reimbursement caps per category.
Spot's Platinum plan offers solid wellness coverage at competitive pricing, while ASPCA's Preventive Care options provide one of the most affordable entry points for basic preventive coverage. For a full breakdown of how these insurers stack up on accident and illness coverage, see our best pet insurance for dogs in 2026 guide.
Pet Insurance vs. Wellness Plan: Do You Need Both?
One of the most common questions pet owners ask is whether they need both pet insurance and a wellness plan, or if one covers everything. The short answer is that they serve fundamentally different purposes, and for most pet owners, accident and illness insurance should take priority.
Standard pet insurance protects you from bills that can reach thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. A single ACL surgery can cost $3,000 to $6,000, cancer treatment can run $5,000 to $20,000, and emergency foreign body removal surgery averages $2,000 to $5,000. These are the expenses that can genuinely strain a family's finances, and insurance provides critical protection against them.
Wellness coverage, by contrast, helps with expenses that are both predictable and manageable. A wellness exam costs $50 to $100, a vaccination visit runs $75 to $200, and annual bloodwork typically ranges from $100 to $300. These are meaningful costs, but they are rarely financially devastating. For a broader look at whether pet insurance itself is the right choice for your situation, our article on whether pet insurance is worth it breaks down the decision framework in detail.
If budget is a factor, prioritize accident and illness insurance first. Add wellness coverage only if the numbers work after you have secured protection against the large, unexpected expenses that represent the greatest financial risk.
What Wellness Plans Do Not Cover
Understanding the exclusions in any pet wellness plan is just as important as understanding what is covered. Wellness plans, including Pets Best, do not cover:
- Illness treatment: If a routine blood panel reveals an underlying condition, the treatment for that condition falls under your accident and illness policy, not the wellness plan. The diagnostic test itself may be covered by wellness, but any resulting treatment is not.
- Pre-existing conditions: Like standard pet insurance, wellness plans may exclude coverage for conditions that existed before enrollment, though this is less relevant for purely preventive services.
- Non-routine procedures: Emergency dental extractions, diagnostic imaging, specialist consultations, and surgical procedures beyond spay and neuter are covered under your illness policy, not wellness.
- Prescription medications: Ongoing prescription medications for chronic conditions are not part of wellness coverage. Flea, tick, and heartworm preventive medications may be partially covered depending on the plan, but therapeutic medications are not.
The pet insurance waiting period also applies differently to wellness add-ons. Most wellness benefits become available immediately or within a short waiting period, unlike accident and illness coverage which typically has a 14-day waiting period for illness claims. Check your specific policy terms, as waiting periods vary by provider.
How to Choose the Right Wellness Plan
Choosing between Pets Best and its competitors, or deciding whether to add wellness coverage at all, comes down to a few practical considerations:
- Calculate your actual annual preventive care spending. Pull out your veterinary receipts from the past year and add up what you spent on exams, vaccines, preventives, and diagnostics. Compare that total against the annual premium cost of the wellness plan you are considering. If your spending consistently exceeds the premium, the plan is likely worth it.
- Consider your pet's life stage. Puppies and kittens have the highest concentration of preventive care needs. Senior pets have increasing diagnostic needs. Adult pets in their middle years typically have the lowest routine care costs, which makes wellness plans less financially compelling during this stage.
- Evaluate flexibility vs. structure. If you want specific dollar amounts assigned to each service, Pets Best and ASPCA offer clear benefit schedules. If you prefer the flexibility to allocate your wellness benefit however you choose, Embrace Wellness Rewards is the better fit.
- Factor in your pet insurance deductible. Some providers, like Nationwide's Whole Pet plan, build wellness coverage directly into their comprehensive insurance policy with a single deductible and reimbursement rate. This can simplify the process but often comes with a higher overall monthly cost. For help comparing pet insurance across providers, our pet insurance guide covers all the major options.
Tips for Maximizing Your Wellness Plan Benefits
If you do decide to add wellness coverage, these strategies help ensure you get the most value from your investment:
- Schedule all covered services early in the policy year. Wellness benefits reset annually, so front-loading your appointments ensures you use all available reimbursements before the year ends.
- Submit every eligible receipt. Many pet owners forget to file claims for smaller expenses like fecal tests or deworming treatments. These add up and contribute to reaching your maximum benefit.
- Stack wellness with your insurance policy. If bloodwork reveals an issue that requires treatment, the diagnostic cost may be covered by wellness while the treatment cost is covered by your accident and illness policy. Understanding how these two coverages interact can maximize your total reimbursement.
- Review your plan annually. As your pet ages, their preventive care needs change. A puppy wellness plan makes sense in year one, but you may want to switch tiers or drop wellness coverage entirely as your pet matures and their routine care needs stabilize.
Final Verdict on Pets Best Wellness Coverage
Pets Best wellness coverage is a solid option for pet owners who want to bundle their preventive care costs into predictable monthly payments. The BestWellness tier offers genuinely useful coverage for dental cleanings, spay and neuter procedures, and diagnostic bloodwork, making it particularly compelling for puppy and kitten owners or those with senior pets approaching the age where regular diagnostics become essential.
However, the value proposition narrows for adult pets with stable health routines, where annual preventive costs may not consistently exceed the premium payments. In those cases, paying out of pocket for routine care while maintaining strong accident and illness coverage is often the more financially efficient approach.
The bottom line: evaluate your specific pet's needs, run the numbers against your actual veterinary spending, and choose the coverage structure that makes sense for your budget and your peace of mind. For a comprehensive look at pet insurance options beyond wellness, explore our pet insurance guide. If your dog is dealing with specific health conditions that require both preventive monitoring and ongoing treatment, our guide to the best food for dogs with kidney disease and our review of glucosamine supplements for senior dogs cover targeted support options as well.