Dental Practice Membership Plans: The Insurance Alternative
As more of my clients move to a fee-for-service model to get away from the restrictions of insurance networks, I’ve noticed a rise in practices offering in-house membership or subscription plans. These self-administered savings plans provide an alternative for patients who don’t have insurance, as well as those whose dentist is out of network.
The Basic Benefits
Dental practices are fed up with insurance networks, and many are looking for a way to attract more patients who don’t rely on insurance to receive dental care. I’ve seen quite a few practices start offering an in-house plan they devised themselves, while others have contracted with a third party. Most of the in-house payment plans I’ve seen include preventive care for a flat fee that is slightly lower than the standard fee and provide a 10-20% discount on most other services. Practices often create different options for adults, children, and periodontal maintenance, each at a different price point to reflect the services included.
Practices benefit from offering a membership or subscription savings plan because it brings value to patients without dental insurance who can afford to pay out of pocket and can keep out-of-network patients from leaving. These programs create loyalty because the plans usually renew annually, automatically in some cases. The patient pays for a year of included preventive services up front, increasing the likelihood they’ll return to take advantage of all that entails. If they don’t, then the practice keeps the entire fee based on the established plan rule.
Another benefit to offering an in-house membership plan is control. The dental practice has the power to decide how to administer the plan, what to include for the annual fee or monthly subscription rate, which add-on services to offer at a discount, whether renewal will be automatic, the payment parameters, how many plan options to offer, all the rules that will apply, and how to market their plan. In addition to administrative control, the practice gains total treatment decision power since the plan is not affiliated with insurance in any way.
Marketing Your Membership Plan
MDA helps practices by supporting their internal marketing efforts with social media, blog posts, emails to existing patients, mentions of this on existing landing pages, and more, based on the practice’s goals for new signups and renewals. Because in-house membership plans are suitable for all patients who can’t or don’t want to use insurance, marketing them to existing as well as new patients makes sense.
Who Needs to Know
I advise marketing your practice’s in-house membership plan to all patients, existing and new. Existing patients may not be aware of the option. Patients who normally use insurance may experience a change in their insurance provider at work, and knowing about your practice’s membership plan might entice them to stay on. The same holds true for practices transitioning to FFS. To keep more patients, marketing the membership plan can be crucial. In some cases, a patient may discover that your practice’s membership plan is more cost effective than paying insurance premiums and copays for the year. New patients may find the option of a membership plan convenient, especially if they’re having difficulty finding a dentist within their provider’s network.
Getting the Word Out
Social media, email, and blog posts are the quickest ways to alert patients to your practice’s membership plan. A punchy post about cutting out the middle man (insurance) and an email campaign to explain the benefits of the plan will help spread the word to existing patients. A good strategy for targeting new patients is a landing page and a blog post that links to it.
The best way to market your practice’s membership plan is in house. Everyone on the team should be aware of the plan, know how to explain it, and know where to send a patient for more information and to enroll. Each team member should have a directive to mention the membership plan to all patients, even the ones with insurance. You never know when someone’s circumstances will change or who they know that could be looking for a dentist. This is especially important for practices transitioning to a fee-for-service model. Training staff and, by proxy, training patients will make the move less painful for everyone.
An in-house membership or subscription plan offers patients and practices an alternative to insurance networks. Many practices find them attractive as they move away from insurance and aim to gain more self-paying patients. Patients find these plans attractive because they don’t have to navigate a complicated insurance plan to receive basic dental care. In all cases, a membership plan can help a dental practice retain more patients and, consequently, more revenue.
