According to the National Interview Survey, 21% of people delay or forgo dental care due to cost. While insurance can lessen that financial burden, recent budget cuts threaten to reduce health programs by over $1 trillion. Some practices offer in-office memberships to supplement patients’ insurance coverage. This week, Dentistry 411 has prepared a practice owner’s guide to successful in-office dental memberships, with advice on crafting and implementing these payment models.
How Do Memberships Work?
Also known as discount plans, these highly customizable subscriptions are billed monthly or annually and offer certain services at low or no additional cost.
Plans typically have a “pay for what you need” pricing model. Most insurance companies have premiums, deductibles, and copayments that help cover specialized or emergency care. But if someone has a clean dental history and only requires a biannual checkup, their charges remain the same. Many plans offer discounts on restorative care, so your patient saves money while paying only for necessary care.
Practice owners praise memberships for their office benefits. Plans provide guaranteed income directly to the office, cut the insurance headaches, and strengthen patient loyalty. They can also reduce barriers to care and increase access, stimulating new patient growth.
Most plans include biannual preventative care appointments. This perk helps patients stay up to date with their dental care and catch early markers of potential issues. Some systems may also offer tiers tailored to patients’ top concerns. Offices can offer cosmetic plans, which include routine whitening, while others focus on overall wellness and offer x-rays and bitewings.
Step-by-Step Guide to In-Office Dental Memberships
- Research – If you think a membership plan is right for your office, you should look into the legal guardrails available for your office and patients. Ensure your practice can handle the contracts required by these plans. The ADA offers resources that can help you navigate this step.
- Consider your needs – As we mentioned, membership plans are customizable. Consult with your team to analyze patterns in patient demographics. Depending on your patients’ average age, they might benefit from plans with strong orthodontic or prosthetic benefits. You could also survey your patients to get their opinions. You can either reach out to them digitally or prompt them in the office with pen and paper, or a QR code.
- Choose a management style – Once you have an idea of what your plan will look like, it’s time to decide whether to manage it internally or externally. Vendors are a common preference to reduce administrative legwork. They can help balance plan costs to preserve profits and affordability for you and the patient. The ADA offers a no-cost setup and reduced fees for members to use Bento. If you opt to self-manage your plan, you retain all earned revenue, but you are also completely responsible for maintenance and legal compliance.
- Construct your plan – Based on your findings from the previous steps, you can begin to draft possible plans. Prioritize the features your patients find most valuable and your team can deliver consistently. If this sounds overwhelming, some vendors offer plan templates that allow you to launch membership models quickly.
- Spread the word – Now that you have a carefully crafted plan and a vendor to help manage it, your membership is ready to go live! You can post information on social media and link to plan options so interested parties can see their options immediately. Some offices attract new members by offering referral benefits for patients who encourage others to sign up.
- Maintain your plans – After patients use the membership for a while, they may have feedback or suggestions about the software or plan options. At this point, your goal is to keep the feature helpful and desirable. Here is a webinar from Bento about enhancing existing dental plans.
