In this blog, Practice Plan Regional Support Manager (RSM), Jayne Gibson, explores how dental membership plans help practices grow, build loyalty and achieve stability. Supporting both patient care and business success.
Since the pandemic, NHS dentistry has faced an ever-increasing struggle. Rising costs, and clinicians’ desire for a better work/life balance has created a catastrophic problem with recruitment and retention leaving contract holders struggling to fulfil their targets.
For many, the need to secure sustainable private income has become essential to ensure the survival of their practice. In these circumstances, introducing a dental membership plan can be a practical, proven way to bring financial predictability and increase patient loyalty.
What is a dental membership plan?
In short, a dental membership plan is a way to help your patients budget for their regular oral healthcare while providing your practice with a predictable monthly income. Plans are extremely flexible and can be tailored to meet the needs of your patients and your practice.
Dentists will assess their patients and suggest the type of plan that would best suit their needs. A common plan structure is two oral health examinations and two hygiene appointments per year. Patients spread the cost of these through a monthly direct debit.
The monthly fee would be calculated based on the patient demographic and the practice’s needs but would always represent a saving for the patient on the cost of pay-as-you-go prices. A discount on treatments is often also offered, and Practice Plan patients can also gain access to the Worldwide Dental Emergency Assistance Scheme in the event of a dental trauma, dental emergency, permanent facial disfigurement, hospitalisation or an oral cancer diagnosis.
The business benefits for your practice
Predictable, recurring income
One of the disadvantages of patients paying fee-per-item is its unpredictability. Despite receiving a recall notice every six months, a patient may attend the practice when called and may choose to extend the interval between examinations to 9- or 12 months. This could be for reasons of budget constraints or simply because they don’t prioritise their oral health.
Patients who are members of a dental membership plan pay a monthly fee to cover their oral health examinations and hygiene appointments. Which means the practice receives a predictable monthly income from its members. This can be a great benefit as it serves to smooth cashflow. While seasonal offers can still be a useful practice boost to income, regular plan income reduces the reliance on them.
The predictable nature of plan income can also help with planning for the future of the practice too. Knowing that you can depend upon a certain level of income can aid your financial forecasting and practice investment decisions.
Improved patient retention and loyalty
By becoming members of a dental membership plan, patients make a financial commitment to the practice. This in turn demonstrates their loyalty and gives them an incentive to attend regularly. After all, if you’ve already paid for something then you want to make sure you get your money’s worth, don’t you?
Regular attendance allows practice staff, both clinical and admin, to get to know patients well and to develop a stable long-term relationship with them. This increases trust which means any suggested treatment plans are more likely to be accepted.
Patients who are happy with their practice are also likely to tell their family and friends about it, increasing your word-of-mouth referrals. This is great for the practice as it’s a cost efficient and trusted way to market a practice.
Reduced administrative and financial stress
The regular predictable monthly income from a plan can also help a practice when it comes to budgeting and financial planning.
With the support offered by a provider, there’s peace of mind that payments and communication with patients about the plan will be handled efficiently. Some providers, such as Practice Plan, offer easy access to management information regarding their plan performance. Joiners, leavers, direct debit details and updating personal information can all be done online via Supportal, our digital patient management system. What’s more, your patients can also make basic changes to their own details online via MyPlan, which can mean fewer phone calls to the practice, reducing the administrative burden on your practice admin team.
With both of these systems available 24/7, you and your patients can update details and make changes at times to suit your needs, not just during office hours.
Supports a preventive, relationship-focused model
Introducing a dental membership plan demonstrates to your patients that your focus is on maintaining their oral health and keeping them dentally fit. It’s a decisive move away from “drill and fill” or emergency-based care.
By seeing patients twice-a-year for oral health examinations and hygiene appointments you can build rapport with your patients and your dentistry can be more proactive. Any emerging problems can be caught and dealt with early which is great for the patient, and the practice. Once a patient is confidently dentally fit then conversations can switch and focus on the changes they may like to make to their smile. The ‘nice-to-haves’ rather than simply the ‘need-to-haves’.
Freedom and stability when moving away from the NHS
If you are considering moving away from the NHS, then a membership plan offers a structured, sustainable way to go private with patient-friendly messaging.
The monthly income from plan membership fees can help replace lost NHS income while you’re establishing and building up your private offering. This can be a valuable lifeline in the early days. It can also be a great way to help patients move from NHS to private care in an affordable way. As NHS patient charges increase, the gap between NHS and private dental care narrows, making private dentistry more accessible.
Paying by monthly direct debit helps patients budget for their oral healthcare and insulates them from the shock of paying for the full cost of an examination and a hygiene appointment in a particular month. It also demonstrates to patients that private care is affordable and within their reach.
Supports team morale and satisfaction
Most dental teams report how much calmer life is with a plan in place. Plan patients are often easier to deal with as their fees are paid monthly by direct debit. This means there are likely to be fewer fee disputes for practice admin staff to deal with.
As most plan patients are, or become dentally fit, a dentist’s workload can become more predictable and the patient flow calmer. Having a plan helps build a culture of long-term care rather than drill and fill, transactional treatment, which can be more satisfying for the team.
Why membership plans are good for both patients and practices
(for more on this, check out our blog on ‘The benefits of a dental membership plan for patients’)
Membership plans are a “win–win” for both practices and patients. Patients get to benefit from being able to spread the cost of their care making it more affordable for them. While practices gain a regular monthly income and a cohort of loyal, engaged patients.
With both parties winning, practices can grow more sustainably.
How to introduce a plan effectively
If you’re thinking of introducing a membership plan, then it’s important to have the whole team on board. While it’s the clinician who will recommend the type of plan to a patient, any member of the team can be asked to explain more about plan membership. Which is why ensuring everyone understands the reasons why the plan is being introduced and feels confident to be able to explain the benefits to a patient is key to a successful plan introduction.
Clear patient communication is also essential. Although introducing a membership plan is a smart commercial move, it also has huge benefits for patients. Not only does a plan help them budget for their private oral healthcare, it also guarantees them regular appointments at a practice they know and trust. At a time of dental deserts where thousands of patients are unable to get an appointment with an NHS dentist, that’s something whose value cannot be underestimated.
Whether you’re choosing a provider to help you move away from the NHS, switching from another provider or are a private practice introducing a plan for the first time, Practice Plan offers all the tailored support, training, and marketing resources you’ll need to make it a success. With more than 30 years’ experience of helping dentists build sustainable businesses you can feel confident we know what we’re doing and will look after you every step of the way.
Find out how Practice Plan can help you design and launch a plan that fits your practice. Start the conversation today.
