Best Dental Software 2021

Dental Membership Plan Software: Is It Worth It?

Is dental membership plan software a smart purchase for your practice? Our experts analyzed the best solutions on the market to help you determine if membership management software is a worthwhile investment.

Many dental practices offer dental membership plans in order to increase revenue and improve patient outcomes. Dental membership plan software was created to help dental practices manage these plans. We explain the benefits of dental membership plans, share the features of dental membership plan software, and show you how to think about the ROI of an investment into this type of software.

Table of Contents

What are Dental Membership Plans?

Dental membership plans are subscriptions for discounted treatments that are offered directly to patients. This subscription-based model is an alternative to traditional insurance plans and pay-per-service payment models.

Dental Membership Plan Benefits

There are significant benefits of offering membership plans at your practice. A membership plan adds recurring revenue to your practice, attracts uninsured patients, improves patient loyalty, and reduces dependency on insurance.

Generate Recurring Revenue

Dental membership plans add a stream of recurring revenue to your practice. Recurring revenue is more stable than a series of one-off payments. It also allows for greater financial visibility because you can accurately predict your income on a monthly and annual basis. This makes operations and finances easier, and makes your practice less prone to insolvency. Additionally, businesses with recurring revenue typically have higher valuations.

Attract Uninsured Patients

According to the NADP, about a third of Americans do not have dental insurance. This demographic largely consists of millennials, gig economy workers, and new retirees. They often seek less treatment than they need because of the fear, or perceived fear, of not being able to afford care. Offering affordable dental care plans with transparent pricing is an effective way to get these types of patients into your office.

Improve Patient Loyalty

Membership plans attract the type of patients you want: loyal patients who accept more treatment. Patients who choose to become members are committing to receive continued care from your practice at a discounted rate. This makes offering membership plans a smart long-term play. While you will receive less money per treatment, your net production will increase because your members will receive care more frequently and consistently than pay-per-service patients.

Additionally, practices with membership plans spend less time focusing on patient retention. Since members commit to subscriptions, your front-office doesn’t have to send as many recall reminders to your members.

Reduce Dependency on Insurance Companies

By generating revenue through a membership plan, you reduce your dependency on insurance companies. Membership plans have advantages for your practice and patients:

  • Practice Benefits: Your reimbursement rates are not controlled by third parties. You set your own fees, and receive 100% of payments. Additionally, membership plans reduce your staff’s administrative burden because they no longer deal with tedious insurance-related tasks like claims submission, waiting periods, and patient verification.
  • Patient Benefits: Membership plans offer patients affordable treatment with transparent pricing. Patients have easier access to care when they aren’t bound by high deductibles & premiums, co-pays, and out-of-network provider restrictions.

Membership Plan Software

Although membership plans offer a variety of benefits, efficiently managing your membership program is a time-consuming and tedious process. Additionally, the difficulty of maintaining a successful membership program increases as you acquire new members. Membership plan software is equipped with features to help practices grow and maintain successful membership programs.

Key Features

Below, we'll discuss the core features you’ll find in membership plan software. We include screenshots of the product to give you a sense of its design and layout.

Customizable Plans

Dental membership plan software allows you to create customizable membership plans that are tailored to the needs of your practice and your patients. Here are a few categories you can customize in your membership plans:

  • Plan name
  • Plan pricing
  • Included treatments
  • Discounts
  • Age limits
dentalhq customizable plans

Online Patient Portal

Most membership management solutions are equipped with an online patient portal, so your patients can conveniently sign up for a plan at any time. Patients enter personal and billing information directly in this portal which reduces their check-in time, and lowers the administrative burden on your front-office staff.

kleer member enrollment 2

Automated Payment and Collections

Managing and tracking payments is a convoluted and time-consuming process for practices that handle membership plans without software. Dental membership plan software automates the payment process. You can store payment information in the system, and patients will be charged automatically according to the fee schedule you set.

Most membership management solutions come with an auto-renewal feature and automated renewal reminders. The auto-renewal feature helps retain your members, and keep them on a 12-month revenue cycle without lulls between subscription start and end dates. The software will automatically notify patients of upcoming renewal dates by text or email.

Dashboard

Dental membership plan software includes a dashboard where you can track members, revenue, and payments. Also, some solutions allow you to conduct many administrative tasks like enroll new patients and send membership invites through text and email.

dentalhq dashboard 1

Customer Support Team

Because membership plan software vendors often charge customers per member, they have a vested interest in your success. Vendors like DentalHQ and Kleer have dedicated customer support teams that help you attract new patients and plan members. They use algorithms to help you determine the optimal price for your plans, and actively monitor your practice’s performance to help you realize your practice’s full potential.

Check out our in-depth reviews for DentalHQ and Kleer.

Is Dental Membership Plan Software Worth It?

Dental membership plan software will generate more revenue for your practice and save your team time. However, it is a significant investment. When deciding whether or not to purchase dental plan membership software, it's important to calculate an estimated return on investment (ROI) to determine if it's a worthwhile purchase.

Below is a breakdown of the benefits and costs associated with dental membership plan software. Weigh these against each other to determine whether purchasing this type of software is a worthwhile investment for your practice.

How Dental Membership Plan Software Creates Economic Value for Your Practice

Practices purchase dental membership plan software because it helps them increase practice revenue. Membership plan software creates value for your practice in four primary ways:

Results in More Plan MembersWorking with a software vendor will help you market your program better and get more patients onboard. Also, solutions provide online patient portals that allow patients to sign up at any time.
Results in Your Plan Growing Faster Over TimeThe software automatically sends renewal campaigns and charges credit cards, which leads to a greater percentage of members staying on your plan over time.
Results in an Optimized, and Likely Higher, Price PointMany vendors, including DentalHQ and Kleer, have specialized teams and algorithms that help you optimize the price point of your membership plans.
Removes Your Cost of Having to Manage the Plan YourselfThis type of software automates administrative tasks that would normally be conducted by your front-office staff including patient data entry, tracking plan payments, and managing member renewals.

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Dental Membership Plan Software Costs

Obviously, there is a cost to onboarding membership plan software. Here's how pricing works for this type of software:

In general, vendors charge an average of $3 per member on a monthly basis. The number of members in your plan determines which software product is most affordable for your practice. As you can see below, Kleer and DentalHQ are cheaper for practices with around 100 members, and BoomCloud is cheaper for practices with around 400 members due to its flat fee structure.

Practices With 50 Adult Members, 50 Children Members, $30 Monthly Membership Fee

VendorCost Per Member
Kleer$3.50 per month
DentalHQ$2.40 per month
Illumitrac$4 per month
BoomCloud$4 per month

Practices With 150 Adult Members, 150 Children Members, $30 Monthly Membership Fee

VendorCost Per Member
Kleer$3.50 per month
DentalHQ$1.80 per month
Illumitrac$4 per month
BoomCloud$1.33 per month

Is Dental Membership Software Right For You?

Offering dental membership plans is a smart way to attract new and loyal patients to your practice. There are several software tools designed to help you build a highly successful dental membership plan. Thousands of practices have used tools like DentalHQ and Kleer to generate lucrative recurring revenue streams.

Determining whether you should purchase dental membership plan software will require some calculation on your part. To be a worthwhile investment, the economic benefits of the software must outweigh the cost of the software, which is about $3 per customer per month. If you decide that dental membership plan software is right for you, look at our list of the best dental membership plan software to find the solution that’s best for you.

Lloyd Park

Lloyd Park is a Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where he conducts in-depth analyses of software markets and products. Lloyd also has experience managing the development of software platforms and is an expert in content production & media software. You can connect with Lloyd on LinkedIn.

Lloyd is an expert in several software categories including:

  • Dental software
  • Email marketing software
  • Field service management software
  • Legal software
  • Property management software

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