Running a dental practice is no small feat. Every day is different, and you and your staff are constantly encountering new challenges in patient care, practice management, and regulatory compliance.
Part of the fun of working in such a challenging industry is the introduction of new modes of operating. If you’re looking to introduce new ways of streamlining the operations of your dental practice, you need to be aware of subscription-based patient plans.
New pricing and patient care models can help you better meet your patients’ needs and grow your practice. A subscription-based pricing model is one interesting way to offer first-rate dental care to your patients, and it has taken the industry by storm.
Growth of the Model
You have likely seen the rise of the subscription economy in your personal life. Whether it’s wine, makeup, meal kits, or international snack boxes, Americans are flocking to the subscription-based model. Dental healthcare is no different. Kleer, one of the pioneers in dental membership, was named one of the fastest-growing companies in America in 2023. According to some estimates, this model looks to be the future of dental care, and its growth shows no signs of abating in the near future. But what are the benefits of adding a subscription-based dental care model to your practice?
Customization
While there are some constants in dental care, every patient is different. Yes, we all have some baseline dental hygiene needs that should be tended to, but not every patient needs the exact same sort of treatment. Dental care packages or plans allow you to customize care to what each patient needs and better tend to the patient’s unique dental health.
Increase in Patient Access
By some estimates, 80 million uninsured Americans forego dental care yearly. That’s an astonishingly high number and has a massive impact on the country’s dental health. As any dentist or healthcare practitioner can tell you, preventative care is the backbone of successful patient outcomes. Rising insurance costs within the dental industry prevent many Americans from seeing a dentist, increasing the odds of a negative dental health outcome in the future. This is a huge blindspot within the dental industry’s coverage and threatens millions’ dental health.
Subscription-based dental coverage is one interesting way to offer better coverage to these underserved Americans and improve their oral health. Monthly subscription fees are often cheaper than insurance premiums, and they also help the dentist’s bottom line, as there is no insurance cut in this equation.
Preventative Care
A subscription-based model is a great way to increase access to preventative care and improve patient outcomes. A care plan or package can help patients bundle their preventative care costs together. Imagine a dental practice offering a care package with two cleanings within a year. This packaged approach makes scheduling this critical care easier and allows the underserved to receive much-needed preventative care that will keep their oral health strong in the future.
Retention
Patient attrition is an oft-forgotten element of dental practice management. Depending on how you measure the phenomenon and where your practice is in both lifecycle and market, patient attrition can be between 10-20%. That’s a problem if you’re a dentist looking to increase your patient base. Imagine implementing a successful marketing campaign and improving your net new patient numbers by 15%, only to discover that your patient attrition rate of current patients was 10%. Your astounding 15% increase is now cut to 5%, a respectable but lesser spike in growth. If your patient attrition rate was on the higher end at 20%, your marketing campaign hasn’t so much increased net new patients as merely lessened the rate of loss. As a dentist, you should measure your patient attrition rate.
Subscription-based models can help mitigate this loss. If your patients are already paying for your services monthly or annually, there’s no reason for them to avoid coming in. This can be a win-win for all parties involved. The dentist in question stabilizes their collections and patient base, which is a key step in evaluating and growing the practice in the future. The patients involved secure access to quality preventative oral healthcare.
Call Triumphant Partners
A subscription-based model of oral healthcare can be an interesting way to court the interest of a dental support organization or dental partnership organization. As mentioned previously, this pricing model is beneficial for dentists looking to increase recurring revenue, provide access to more patients, decrease patient attrition, and increase net new patients seen. These are all incredibly valuable metrics to track if you want to sell your dental practice to a DSO or DPO. The better these metrics are for your practice, the better your asking price. If you’re looking to sell your dental practice, this sort of subscription service could be a force multiplier for your dental practice.
If you’re looking to sell your dental practice, call Triumphant Partners today! Selling your dental practice can be a complicated process to undergo by yourself. A trusted, industry-leading partner is a must-have to help you sell your dental practice on your terms. Call Triumphant Partners to discuss how to sell your dental practice at your asking price and what your dental practice is worth!
