Rhode Island Moves to Leash Pet Insurers

New pet insurance regulation requires disclosures and limits waiting periods.

Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
  • 10+ years in insurance and personal finance content

  • 30+ years in media, PR, and content creation

Evelyn leads Insurify’s content team. She’s passionate about creating empowering content to help people transform their financial lives and make sound insurance-buying decisions.

Featured in

media logomedia logomedia logo
Chris Schafer
Edited byChris Schafer
Chris Schafer
Chris SchaferDeputy Managing Editor, News and Marketing Content
  • 15+ years in content creation

  • 7+ years in business and financial services content

Chris is a seasoned writer/editor with past experience across myriad industries, including insurance, SAS, finance, Medicare, logistics, marketing/advertising, and many more.

Featured in

media logomedia logomedia logomedia logo
John Leach
Reviewed byJohn Leach
Photo of an Insurify author
John LeachSenior Insurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 8+ years editing experience

  • NPN: 20461358

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

Featured in

media logo

Published | Reading time: 2 minutes

Advertiser Disclosure

At Insurify, our goal is to help customers compare insurance products and find the best policy for them. We strive to provide open, honest, and unbiased information about the insurance products and services we review. Our hard-working team of data analysts, insurance experts, insurance agents, editors and writers, has put in thousands of hours of research to create the content found on our site.

We do receive compensation when a sale or referral occurs from many of the insurance providers and marketing partners on our site. That may impact which products we display and where they appear on our site. But it does not influence our meticulously researched editorial content, what we write about, or any reviews or recommendations we may make. We do not guarantee favorable reviews or any coverage at all in exchange for compensation.

Why you can trust Insurify: Comparing accurate insurance quotes should never put you at risk of spam. We earn an agent commission only if you buy a policy based on our quotes. Our editorial team follows a rigorous set of editorial standards and operates independently from our insurance partners. Learn more.

Share

Table of contents

Table of contentsexpand/collapse

Pet parents in Rhode Island will soon be able to shop for pet insurance knowing their state has strict regulations on what pet insurance companies can and can’t do.

The state’s new Pet Insurance Act establishes disclosure requirements for pet insurance policies, maximums for waiting periods, a 15-day “free look” period, and a way for consumers to avoid waiting periods altogether.

“Our pets are members of our families, and with veterinary care becoming so costly, more people are opting to buy insurance policies to keep them safe and healthy,” said act co-sponsor Rep. Joseph J. Solomon Jr. in an early July press release. “There is a tremendous need for regulatory standards in the pet insurance industry, and this legislation will protect pet owners by eliminating confusion by requiring insurers to provide detailed information about coverage.”

The new law will take effect Jan. 1, 2026, making Rhode Island the 16th state to adopt specific pet insurance laws.

Rhode Island’s law goes a step beyond

Like other states, Rhode Island modeled its pet insurance law after a template created by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). But Rhode Island’s legislation varies from the NAIC Pet Insurance Model Act in a few significant ways.

Rhode Island’s law bans pet insurance companies from marketing their wellness programs to consumers while selling, marketing, or negotiating a pet insurance policy. Insurers must clearly explain that any wellness program they sell isn’t insurance and that it has separate terms and costs from their pet insurance policies.

The law also allows only a 15-day “free look” trial period for new policies; most states have a 30-day free look period.

Provisions of Rhode Island’s law that follow the NAIC model include:

  • Pet insurers can’t impose waiting periods for accident coverage.

  • Waiting periods for illnesses and orthopedic conditions can’t exceed 30 days.

  • Insurers must disclose any waiting periods and how they work before a consumer buys a policy.

  • Insurers must allow policy buyers to avoid waiting periods altogether by having the covered pet submit to a veterinary exam.

  • Policies must clearly disclose exclusions for pre-existing conditions, hereditary disorders, congenital defects, and chronic conditions.

  • Insurers must disclose whether claim history, pet age, or a change of location could affect premiums.

  • If the underwriting company’s name differs from the name an insurer uses to market and sell policies, companies must disclose the difference.

And pet insurance companies will no longer be able to charge up-front premiums before policies go into effect.

What’s next: More states weigh pet insurance regulation

Because the law generally considers pets to be a type of property, most states regulate pet insurance under their property and casualty laws. But a growing number of states are considering legislation to specifically regulate pet insurance.

California, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington have pet insurance regulations based on the NAIC model act. Legislation is pending in New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

Pet insurance regulation is catching on faster than most model laws, Rick Faucher, president of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association, told Insurify in June.

“When pet insurers see the larger states adopting a model pretty much as is, they can see where the trend is going,” he said. “Carriers look for consistency. It creates a better consumer experience and improves customer service.”

Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content

Evelyn Pimplaskar is Insurify’s director of content. With 30-plus years in content creation – including 10 years specializing in personal finance – Evelyn’s done everything from covering volatile local elections as a beat reporter to building fintech content libraries from the ground up.

Before joining Insurify, she was editor-in-chief at Credible, where she launched and developed the lending marketplace’s media partnership’s content initiative and managed the restructuring of the editorial team to enhance content production efficiency. Formerly, as tax editor for Credit Karma, Evelyn built a library of more than 300 educational articles on federal and state taxes, achieving triple-digit year-over-year growth in e-files from organic search.

Her early career included work as a content marketer, vice president and managing officer of a boutique public relations agency, chief copy editor for 14 weekly Forbes publications, reporting for large and mid-sized daily newspapers, and freelancing for the Associated Press.

Evelyn is passionate about creating personal finance content that distills complex topics into relatable, easy-to-understand stories. She believes great content helps empower readers with the information they need to make important personal finance decisions.

Chris Schafer
Edited byChris SchaferDeputy Managing Editor, News and Marketing Content
Chris Schafer
Chris SchaferDeputy Managing Editor, News and Marketing Content
  • 15+ years in content creation

  • 7+ years in business and financial services content

Chris is a seasoned writer/editor with past experience across myriad industries, including insurance, SAS, finance, Medicare, logistics, marketing/advertising, and many more.

Featured in

media logomedia logomedia logomedia logo
John Leach
Reviewed byJohn LeachSenior Insurance Copy Editor
Photo of an Insurify author
John LeachSenior Insurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 8+ years editing experience

  • NPN: 20461358

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

Featured in

media logo