Although inflation appears to have come back down to levels around the Bank of England’s target of two per cent, for many the cost of living remains an issue. Practices are still seeing patients cancelling appointments and delaying treatment citing affordability as the reason why.
Despite large numbers of patients being aware they will struggle to find NHS dental care and have accepted that private dentistry is their only viable option, many still feel affording this is a challenge. Often practices tell me patients are cancelling, or not booking hygiene appointments, and that the same is true for treatments as well.
Helping patients to budget
Being able to offer patients a way to budget for their oral healthcare can often help overcome these types of issues, which is where a membership plan comes in. By providing your patients with the option of spreading the cost of examinations and hygiene appointments through monthly payments they can budget for them rather than being hit with a much bigger charge every few months. We have found that this, as well as being an attractive solution to the affordability issue, also encourages regular attendance. After all, if you’ve already paid for something, you want to make sure you get the most out of it! This has the side effect of meaning the oral health of plan patients is often better than those who pay as they go. By attending regularly, any potential issues can be caught early and nipped in the bud meaning patients can potentially stave off more extensive (and expensive!) treatments.
In these types of circumstances, it’s important to make sure you are talking about your plan with every enquiry that you get, even those that are enquiring about NHS availability. Tell your potential new patients that you offer a great low-cost private membership from £X, and then let them know the price of your plan. If they are struggling to afford the hygiene appointments, then if they were on a plan, they would be able to spread the cost and budget for them.
When broaching the subject of plans, I advise practices to use a form of words similar to the following. “Most of our patients become a member of the practice, not only because it's the best way we can keep you healthy, but it also gives you the facility to budget for those routine appointments. We can build the right number of hygiene appointments into your care through a prescription service on the plan.”
Tailored plans
If yours is a mixed practice, you may have a scenario where there are NHS patients who pay for private hygiene in practice and want to remain on the NHS for their checkups and their treatments. If you're finding that those patients are starting to delay booking, or are pushing back their hygiene visits, have you considered offering hygiene-only membership for your patients? Allowing them to pay monthly for their hygiene appointments, in many cases makes things more manageable meaning they can attend regularly.
We’ve also come across patients who are delaying treatment or are choosing not to book in for treatment at all. This is where patient finance can be a big help. If you can go and buy a sofa somewhere such as DFS on four years interest free credit, why on earth wouldn’t you spread the cost of dentistry? Patient finance companies, such as Medenta, are a great solution for patients. Once you are working with a finance company then you should think about how you are informing patients about it. For example, are you promoting it to every patient over a certain minimum spend? Do your patients know finance is on offer and are you utilising it to get the most treatment return? Offering patient finance can help patients who might struggle to pay the full cost of treatment in one go the chance to say yes by spreading their payments over a number of months. This can make a huge difference to treatment uptake, especially if it’s interest free.
Retaining plan patients
While it's great to get patients signed up to your membership plan, it’s important to also ensure you retain them. Reminding them at every opportunity of the benefits plan membership affords them is essential to retention. At every touch point you have with a plan patient, there is an opportunity to remind them of this. For example, if they’re going on holiday, check they have a copy of the Worldwide Assistance Scheme brochure to take with them in case they have a problem while they're abroad.
When a patient comes in for one of their included examinations or hygiene appointments, as they’re leaving remind them there’s nothing to pay because they're a member of the practice and it's included in their membership. Or if they need treatment make sure to highlight their member discount has been deducted from the final bill. If you have built X-rays into your plan, remind the patient there’s no charge as it’s included in their membership plan. So, it’s about taking advantage of these touch points to remind patients of the value of being on a plan and showing them the extra benefits they get that wouldn't be available to those who pay as they go.
For more information visit www.practiceplan.co.uk/be-practice-plan/