Heartworm claims are up 201%, and the risk map is moving north

A pet insurer just put a number on something vets have warned about for years: heartworm is no longer a Southern, summer-only problem. Embrace Pet Insurance says its heartworm diagnosis claims rose 201% between 2020 and 2025, with cases landing year-round and in states like Michigan and Maine. For anyone selling prevention, insurance, or veterinary care, the risk map operators have long relied on is out of date.

Embrace claims data shows heartworm spreading beyond Southern hotspots

The headline figure is a 201% jump in heartworm diagnosis claims across Embrace's book from 2020 to 2025.

Two findings cut against the conventional wisdom. Diagnoses occurred year-round, not just in peak mosquito season. And claims grew fastest in states outside the traditional Gulf and Southeast hotspots, including Illinois, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Maine.

The age data is the other surprise. Embrace found 79% of heartworm claims involved pets aged four and younger, with young adult dogs the largest single share. Cases spanned a wide range of breeds and sizes.

The proprietary data lines up with public surveillance. The American Veterinary Medical Association has reported heartworm prevalence rising over two decades despite effective preventives, and the American Heartworm Society says the disease has now been diagnosed in all 50 states, with more than 1 million dogs currently infected.

One caveat worth stating plainly. A 201% rise in claims reflects both real disease spread and the growth of Embrace's own policy base over five years. It is a directional signal about where and when heartworm shows up, not a clean national incidence rate.

Why the prevention gap is both a growth opening and a claims-cost warning

The real story is the gap between where owners think heartworm lives and where it actually shows up. That perception gap is a business problem for some operators and an opening for others.

Prevention makers have an under-penetrated map

If risk is spreading into the upper Midwest and Northeast and running year-round, then year-round prevention is under-sold everywhere owners still treat it as a Southern, seasonal concern. That is addressable demand for the heartworm-preventive franchises, from Boehringer Ingelheim's Heartgard to Zoetis's Simparica Trio to Elanco's injectable ProHeart. The constraint is not the drug, it is compliance and belief.

For insurers, rising heartworm claims pressure loss ratios

Heartworm treatment is expensive and drawn out, and a 201% claims increase is the kind of trend that shows up in pricing. It also strengthens the case for bundling prevention into wellness products, which is exactly the direction Embrace's parent is moving. Embrace is now backed by Doubtless Pet Care Group, JAB's freshly consolidated global brand, whose pitch pairs insurance with wellness plans and data-driven health tools.

This is an insurer acting like a data publisher

The most strategic thing here may be the release itself. Embrace is turning its claims database into a marketing and thought-leadership asset, the same week its parent rebranded around exactly that capability. Proprietary claims data is something no competitor can copy, and it doubles as underwriting intelligence and content. Expect more of it from JAB's brands, and from any insurer that realizes its claims history is a media asset.

For veterinary clinics, the operational takeaway is compliance. If young dogs in non-traditional states are testing positive, the annual-test-and-prevent conversation needs to happen everywhere, not just below the Mason-Dixon line.

What year-round prevention adoption will reveal

Watch whether prevention behavior actually moves in the emerging states. The gap between diagnosis growth and preventive-medication compliance in places like Michigan and Maine is the number that matters, and it will show up in preventive-brand sales and in vet-visit test rates.

Two external markers will corroborate or complicate Embrace's read. The American Heartworm Society's incidence maps track spread beyond hotspots, and continued expansion there would confirm this is epidemiology, not just book growth. And any move by Doubtless or its peers to attach prevention to wellness plans would signal insurers are treating heartworm as a cost to engineer out rather than a claim to pay.

Heartworm is preventable, which makes the persistent spread a story about behavior and belief more than biology. The operators who close the perception gap first, in the states no one associates with heartworm, capture the upside.

Source: Embrace Pet Insurance heartworm claims data via PR Newswire