Guest Post by Kleer: Top 10 Questions Group Practices Ask About Launching a Membership Plan

As a group practice or DSO you have a lot to do—marketing, recruiting, training, payroll, billing, and so on. As a result, we often hear from groups and DSOs that they don’t have the time or expertise to launch a dental membership plan across their practice locations. That’s why we compiled answers to the top 10 questions we receive from group practices about launching a membership plan. As you will see, it’s not as large of an undertaking as you may think—in fact, it’s fast and easy to do with Kleer as your partner!

1. Why should I implement a dental membership plan right now?

COVID-19 had a major impact on the dental industry. The number of uninsured adult patients grew from 100 million to 130 million due to job losses and job changes. At the same time, practices nationwide saw patient visits decline 20-25% because of patient fear and distancing and the cost of running a practice increased 5-10% due infection control and PPE. A Kleer membership plan addresses these issues. Your uninsured patients get the simple and affordable coverage they want, and your practices experience 2-3X more patient visits and 2X more revenue per patient. Plus, you will build a reliable, recurring revenue stream that boosts practice valuations.

2. How long will it take to implement a dental membership plan?

We understand that your time is precious and that you have a lot to do. After you’ve gone through a live, interactive demo of the Kleer membership platform, we just need an initial investment of about 30-60 minutes of your time for a consultation with our Director of Group Success to design and price your plan and then another 30-60 minutes to train your team on the platform. Once those steps are completed, your custom membership plan is ready for your patients to enroll. It’s that simple and fast!

3. How do I build a membership plan?

Our experts make building a membership plan easy! During your consultation with our Director of Group Success you will design care plans based on your practice’s treatment preferences, goals, and patient demographics. The care plans can be the same across all dental practices or customized for each individual office. We have a proprietary SmartPricing™ tool we use to price your plans in a way that balances both patient and practice value. By the end of your consultation, you will have a well-designed and priced membership plan(s) that works for your patients and your group.

4. How will my small team handle this?

Our Kleer Success Team is your team! They will guide you every step of the way from design, to launch, and growth. We have onboarding specialists who will provide platform training to your team and teach you how to promote your plan to patients. Once your plan is launched, our growth specialists will review your plan’s performance and provide best practices to grow your membership. In addition to onboarding and growth, our support specialists are always available to answer questions from your team or your patients via phone, email, or chat. Working together, we will make your dental membership plan a major success even with a small team. One example of a successful customer of ours is PNW Dental in Bend, Oregon. They have a team of only four people, yet they enrolled 208 members and generated almost $100,000 of recurring annual revenue in just 18 months! Read the full case study.

5. How can I manage a membership plan at the group level?

Kleer’s Group Portal enables the group leadership team to see members, renewals, payments, and deposits across the group and by individual practice locations in real time. The portal includes downloadable reports and a helpful dashboard that shows you which practices are performing well, and which practices need additional help.

6. How will my team(s) manage a membership plan at the office level?

Each practice has access to the Kleer Practice Portal which contains members, renewals, payments, and deposits for their specific office. They can also access a repository of in-office and digital marketing assets, a Help Center of support and training resources, and patient support tools that make it easy to enroll members and update existing accounts.

7. How much ongoing work do I have to put into managing a membership plan?

The Kleer Practice Portal was designed to make your team’s lives easier by streamlining manual, time-consuming processes and providing the information they need to manage a successful membership plan. The portal automatically tracks and manages upcoming payments, past due payments, and renewals. Your team can easily view each member’s information including account details, type of care plan purchased, payments, deposits, membership status, and renewal date. And this information can be edited at any time.

Kleer also provides numerous patient self-service tools. Patients can change their email/mailing address, opt in or out of notifications and auto-renewal, view their payment history, add family members to their plan, and invite friends to join—all from the Kleer Member Portal. If they have any questions, they can reach out to our Kleer Support Specialists via email, chat, or phone.

8. I don’t have time to train my team. Can you help me?

Training new team members can be a big challenge, especially if you have high turnover. To help with this, Kleer provides training resources that will get your team quickly up to speed. We have on demand training videos, tip sheets, and scripts that you can access at any time. If you still have questions you, or anyone else on your team, can reach out to our Kleer Success Team for answers. They are never more than a chat, email, or phone call away.

9. How do I explain a membership plan to patients?

You need to have strong patient communication for your membership plan to be successful. For this reason, Kleer provides free, regularly updated marketing materials you can use to promote your plan to patients. The materials include patient brochures for your front desk, a custom landing page for patients to sign up, website widgets, scripts for your doctors, hygienists, and front office staff, email templates, social media templates, and direct mail templates.

10. Do you have examples of group membership plans that are successful?

Smile Starters, a 9-location, 40-dentist, pediatric practice in North Carolina implemented their dental membership plan with Kleer in late 2018. They had a goal to provide affordable, quality dental care and at the same time minimize staff support and cost. In the first 4 months of partnering with Kleer, they enrolled 276 patients in their membership plan, generating $70,656 of recurring subscription revenue! Read the full case study.

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Interested in implementing a Kleer dental membership plan at your practice(s)? Schedule a demo today to speak to one of our experts!

About Kleer

Kleer’s dental membership plan software enables group practices to easily design, launch, and manage membership plans across multiple dental practice locations. Over 275 group practice locations and 5,000 dentists use Kleer’s feature-rich platform, which is designed for scale and group practice success.

Written by Dave Monahan, CEO of Kleer. Monahan’s passion for improving access to dental care led to the founding of Kleer in 2016. For more information about membership plans powered by Kleer, go to www.kleer.com or reach out to Dave directly at [email protected].