How to Attract and Grow Your Patient Base with a Dental Membership Plan

By Megan Lohman October 3, 2023 2 min read

Discover how the SW Nebraska Dental Center is expanding its practice with new patients – and keeping them – generating more than $130,000 in annual recurring revenue through its dental membership plan.

About

Dr. Kaitlin Haag has been practicing dentistry for over ten years in her solo practice in rural McCook, Nebraska. Growing up, she spent much of her time in her mother’s office, shared by a general dentist. There she discovered a passion for helping people and an interest in dentistry. After receiving her DDS, she returned to her hometown of McCook to combine high-quality dental care with small-town values. Her time in her mother’s office influences how she manages her practice, heart-first, providing a pleasant experience by managing patient anxiety and delivering high-quality oral care to her patients.

Challenge

Patient Demographics

The majority of the practice’s patients are farmers with private insurance that wouldn’t cover some treatments until after one year of coverage. Also many patients in the area are retirees who have lost their insurance and can no longer afford care. Dr Haag needed a way to let these folks access care and stay in the practice. 

“The membership plan is a solution to an insurance problem, not an income problem. In addition to the farmer’s private insurance and the retired patients, we have some patients on state insurance, which is incredibly difficult to work with and has very low reimbursement rates, so there are no providers within a two-hour drive. It’s a huge problem around here.” 

Burden of running in-house plans

The Dental Center created a plan and manually tracked it but found it difficult and time-consuming, and in the end, it wasn’t growing their practice. 

Plan Forward versus the competitors

They tried several different membership plan providers, but the software was hard to work with, and the plans were ‘one-size fits all’ and didn’t fit their patient’s needs. The Dental Center needed software to streamline enrollment, automate patient communication, and offer various payment options. And they needed a team that cared about practice growth.

Results

Wow! The Dental Center has signed >400 membership patients, generating over $135k in annual recurring revenue. Plan Forward has exceeded all expectations with their platform.

“The customized marketing flyer Plan Forward provides us has been invaluable in helping us to explain the plan in easy-to-understand terms. You’re already saving money when you add the amount for one cleaning plus x-rays,” said Dr. Haag. “The membership plan covers the second cleaning six months later and an additional discount on restorative work. Our members keep their preventative cleaning appointments and accept more treatment with the discount. Our plan brings new patients to the practice who have heard about our plan and want high-quality care they can afford. And it keeps them coming back!” 

Without the burden of renewing plans, the hygienists and staff at the SW Nebraska Dental Center take the time to get to know their patients, combining that small-town feel with state-of-the-art dental equipment and a high level of expertise to provide them with the absolute best oral care in a friendly, family-oriented environment. 

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