Dental pricing structures: compliance, transparency and patient-friendly strategies
Practice Plan Regional Support Manager, Sarah Barnard, discusses the needs and benefits of having a transparent pricing structure.
Being transparent about your pricing is important for building patient trust and ensuring your compliance with General Dental Council (GDC) standards. Whether you run an NHS, private or mixed practice, presenting clear and compliant pricing is essential to attract patients and encourage treatment uptake.
- Meeting GDC standards and compliance requirements
The GDC sets out clear expectations for how practices should deal with the issue of pricing. According to Standard 2.4,
“You must give patients clear information about costs.”
Additionally, Standard 2.4.1 states:
“You must make sure that a simple price list is clearly displayed…”
What this means for practices is that they should make sure patients have plenty of opportunities to see how much their treatment is likely to cost. You can do this by:
* Having a simple price list in your reception area
* Displaying your pricing clearly on your website
* Ensuring that this information is easy to understand for both NHS and private treatments.
Apart from the risk of falling foul of the GDC, failing to do this could undermine the confidence of both current and potential patients. If your list of charges isn’t clearly displayed or easy to find on your website, then patients may feel that you have something to hide.
- Pricing and transparency: builds patient trust
Some treatments can be expensive so it’s natural that patients want to know about costs before committing to something. A clearly displayed price list that shows ‘from–to’ price ranges, where appropriate, helps give them an idea how much they’re likely to have to pay. This helps avoid confusion and builds confidence in your services. Being vague about your pricing structure can mislead patients to suspect that a treatment may cost more than it really does.
For NHS services, you should display the standard band charges. If you’re a mixed practice, then showing patients the NHS charges alongside the costs of optional private upgrades will give them the opportunity to choose the private option if they wish and allows them to make a truly informed choice.
- Comparing private pay-as-you-go vs. plan membership savings
For patients considering private treatment, it’s helpful to compare pay-as-you-go fees with the potential savings they could see by being on your membership plan. Plans are structured so that they will be cheaper than the pay-as-you-go option.
For example:
Monthly cost of being on your practice’s membership plan: £21/month, which equates to £252 per year
Private pay-as-you-go hygiene appointment and check-up: £75 each, twice a year = £300 peryear
This sets out the saving they make compared to paying private pay-as-you-go fees for maintaining their oral health. If you also offer a membership discount for treatment, highlighting how they save as a member of the practice should they need or want treatment, can encourage patients to see your plan as a worthwhile investment.
- Psychological framing of savings
How you frame your charges can have a positive effect upon your patients. Playing up the positives of the savings they can make by being a plan member can change how the patient views the costs and reinforce their perception of its value. For example: wouldn’t it be nice for patients to leave thinking they saved £80, rather than feeling depressed they paid £320 for a crown?
Emphasising the value and savings, rather than the total cost, reframes things and puts a positive spin on them. This way, patients are more likely to feel satisfied and inclined to proceed with treatment.
To help ensure your pricing is transparent, Practice Plan’s Practice Marketing team can help with an array of marketing literature from posters, leaflets, social posts and tv slides etc. branded to your practice that incorporate the charges, as appropriate. This allows you to highlight any discounts or savings plan members receive and demonstrates the benefits of being a loyal member of your practice’s membership plan.
It’s clear that transparent pricing is about much more than just following GDC rules; it’s about improving the patient experience, building trust, and encouraging treatment uptake. A simple, clearly displayed and patient-focused price list could be the difference between hesitation and booking.
