Bio
Suzanne Cannon co-founded VetBilling in 2014, after a $4000 emergency vet bill for her schnauzer’s pancreatitis catapulted her into the uncomfortable realization that many pet owners find themselves without accessible options for financing the cost of veterinary care.
VetBilling’s mission is to keep pets and their families together, by reducing economic euthanasia and surrenders driven by pet owners’ frequent difficulty absorbing the full upfront cost of acute, surgical, or emergency veterinary care.
To that end, VetBilling equips veterinary practices with a cloud-based payment management platform that enables them to provide in-house payment and budgeting plans to the approximately 60% of clients who are ineligible for conventional credit-based financing.
Representing VetBilling, Suzanne is an active participant in organizations and initiatives seeking to develop sustainable solutions to the problem of financial access to care. Her company has sponsored events for the Access to Veterinary Care Coalition/Program for Pet Health Equity at UT Knoxville, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, IntroVet CE, Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell University, and Mission Animal Hospital, among several others.
Suzanne has presented or contributed to discussions on the topic of financial access to care for Maddie’s Fund; Cornell University’s Center for Veterinary Business and Entrepreneurship; VetPartners; the Veterinary Science Technology Program at SUNY-Delhi; Washington State University’s Veterinary Business Management Association; and Mission Animal Hospital, a VetBilling partner and a unique, nonprofit full service general practice and urgent care facility in Minneapolis, MN.
She has also been interviewed on several podcasts, including “Why Do Pets Matter,” with Debra Vey-Voda Hamilton; “The Pet Insurance Guide Podcast” with Dr. Doug Kenney; “Rekindling” with Julie Squires, BS, CCFP; The Webinar Vet’s “Vet Chat” Podcast with Dr. Anthony Chadwick; “The AWIP podcast” with Rachel Smith; The Animal Welfare Junction podcast with Dr. Michelle Gonzalez; and The Vet Med Wellness and Leadership Podcast with Crystal Stokes.
Suzanne holds an M.S. in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University of Maryland and an M.A. in Jewish Studies from Baltimore Hebrew University.
Before working with veterinary professionals, Suzanne was employed as a pastoral counselor with Johns Hopkins Hospital’s AIDS Psychiatry Service where she founded a spirituality group for patients and hospital employees in 2001, which remains active to this day. She also worked as both a hospital and hospice chaplain for the Jewish Hospice of Central Maryland, and in private practice at Pastoral Counseling Services of Maryland.
Given her prior professional background, Suzanne is passionate about helping veterinarians and pet owners find ways to navigate cost barriers and to identify collaborative solutions in an atmosphere of mutual respect and emotional safety.
Outside of VetBilling, Suzanne is a devoted dog and horse mom who loves being outdoors when she isn’t reading 5 books at the same time! She spends her free time caring for her horse Chase and riding through the forests and fields near her home in Westminster, Maryland. She enjoys learning about spirituality and mysticism, nature, equine-assisted growth and learning, animal communication, and anything related to access to veterinary care.
Suzanne and her life and business partner, Tony, share two dogs - Scout, an Otterhound, and Finch, a paralyzed miniature schnauzer.
