DIY dental membership plan vs. the Kleer and Membersy solution: Which is right for you?
How you participate with dental coverage impacts everything important to you — from how your patients access and afford care to how you get paid.
Membership plans provide practices of all shapes and sizes with the ability to offer an alternative option to help patients access essential dental care at a price they can afford. Meanwhile, practices get out from under the control conventional insurance coverage has had for entirely too long.
Now the question is do you build this yourself from the ground up or put your trust in a partner to do the heavy-lifting? Let’s dive into the pros and cons of both.
What is a DIY In-House Dental Membership Plan?
A do-it-yourself in-house dental membership plan is an option created and managed directly by your practice that allows patients to pay a fee to access dental benefits. These plans can enhance patient care and reduce dependence on insurance.
Benefits of In-House Dental Membership Plans
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You can deliver high-quality, focused patient care: If your practice has to operate on a higher-volume model to make up for low reimbursement rates, a membership plan can help change that — by customizing plans specifically to the needs of your practice and patients and earning your desired rate, you can afford to service a smaller number of patients in a more focused fashion.
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You’ll have increased profit margins and a higher collection rate on net production: Since your membership plan is independent of insurance, you won’t be affected by declining reimbursement rates and your fees won’t be capped at the rates set by insurance.
- You create a direct relationship with your patients: By eliminating the go-between (aka PPOs), you maintain full control over patient benefits, treatments, and payments, fostering a stronger patient-provider relationship. As well as providing your uninsured and inactive patients access to an affordable option, making it simple for them to get the care they need. Ultimately leading to a mutually beneficial practice and patient relationship.
What is the Kleer and Membersy Solution?
Kleer and Membersy offer an integrated dental membership platform designed to simplify and enhance your practice's membership plan offerings. These solutions come with advanced features and expert strategy and support to ensure success.
Benefits of a Kleer and Membersy Dental Membership Plan
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Patients are more loyal, more compliant, and more profitable: Kleer and Membersy don’t just help you design and manage your membership plan, our team works with you to get results. First we help you price your plan based on local patient demographics, dentists treatment preferences, and economics of your practice or DSOs locations. As patients enroll, automated subscription payments and plan notifications encourage them to use their plan savings, increasing their perceived value and likelihood of renewal.
88% of members on a plan powered by Kleer and Membersy say they're more likely to stay with their current dentist*. - The payments infrastructure and speed of collections is unparalleled: Missed payments are common when managing an in-house plan. This often happens because practices track their plans in various ways — PMS, Excel, or written documents — leading to inaccuracies, which can open your office up to a higher level of risk.
With Kleer and Membersy, you can streamline payments and speed up collections. Our system automates payment processing, tracks payments and deposits sent to your bank account, and sends notifications to patients and your practice when payments are missed. It also retries payment methods and posts payments and balance transactions directly into your PMS, eliminating the headaches of manual tracking.
- Mitigate compliance issues that could grind your growth to a halt: Kleer and Membersy ensure your plan has the necessary discount medical plan operator (DMPO) licensure and meets all requirements — including HIPAA and payment processing laws like PCI — to keep you in good standing.
- Gain access to marketing tools and support: Gain strategic guidance on how to transform your revenue through membership. From tailored plan design to office education, member support, marketing, and beyond, we apply a combined 20+ years of experience to help you reach your goals.
Common Misconceptions of a Membership Plan Debunked
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It won't take time and resources to manage a plan: Managing your plan requires significant time and effort from your team, as they must manually track patient benefits, payments, renewals, and more.
Lack of an automated tracking and reporting system may actually slow the growth of your plan. As you add more members the more complex your plan becomes, creating a whole other job for front office teams. - My team won't need extra support: Without a dedicated support team, resolving issues and addressing patients' questions and requests about the plan, becomes the responsibility of your practice. Additionally, marketing efforts — such as creating brochures, in-office collateral, website landing pages, and digital marketing campaigns — fall entirely on your team.
- Choosing a partner means my team will give up control: This is actually a common misconception, Kleer and Membersy practices are in complete control of their plan. Practices decide what is included in the care plans, what they name and brand the plan, and how they price the plans. This is your membership, so it’s only fair that you have control over every detail.
- Membership fees will reduce production value: Some practices are concerned that the fees charged by third-party membership plan partners will cut into revenue and reduce the production value per patient. Although this is a reasonable concern, lack of access to affordable options can be a major barrier to patients seeking and receiving dental care.
While Kleer and Membersy charge a small fee to cover the platform, support resources, payment processing, and legal fees, it’s significantly lower than the 40-60% taken by traditional insurance.
Real Examples from Dental Practices Like Yours
SkyRidge Dental
In-House vs. Kleer and Membersy: After years of managing a time-intensive in-house membership plan with flat results, transitioning to Kleer and Membersy revitalized SkyRidge Dental’s approach, achieving:
How to Choose the Right Solution for Your Practice
Use our checklist to guide you through the research process
☑️ Ease of Use: Why invest in a software platform that no one can use? The right membership plan platform should be user-friendly, intuitive, and efficient for both you and your staff.
☑️ Reporting Features: Having the ability to track the number of members, purchases, plan benefits, renewals, and payments at any time streamlines your office operations, saving you time and money.
☑️ Plan Customization Across Practices: For practices with multiple locations, adjusting pricing manually can be challenging. Optimize your offering for patients at any location, considering your fee schedule and data from thousands of dental practices using Kleer and Membersy.
☑️ Excellent Customer Service: A responsive customer service team is crucial for troubleshooting issues. Choosing a software with a dedicated support team ensures you’re never left hanging when you need help.
☑️ Scalability: Select a membership plan software that can grow with your practice. A scalable solution saves you stress and money in the long run by adapting to your evolving needs.
☑️ Day-to-Day Management: Real-time management of plan details is essential. Tracking recurring revenue, bank deposits, member enrollment, and renewals provides invaluable resources for your office team.
☑️ Customer Enrollment: Ease of enrollment is vital for the strength of your membership plan. Kleer and Membersy simplify this with a scannable QR code on plan brochures and customized landing page that allows new members to sign up in minutes.
☑️ Payment Auto-renewal: Enabling members to automatically renew their membership each year increases recurring revenue and operational efficiencies.
☑️ Integration with PMS: Integrating your PMS with a membership plan platform streamlines patient management and centralizes essential information.
☑️ Expert Strategy and Support: The long-term success of your membership plan depends on a dedicated support team. Kleer and Membersy with you from the start to ensure your practice meets its goals.
*Save a copy of the ultimate membership checklist for your team!
By carefully evaluating your practice’s unique needs and goals, you can determine whether an in-house dental membership plan or working with Kleer and Membersy is the best fit.
When you are ready to take the next step, we invite you to meet with a plan expert!
About the Author
As the Content Marketing Strategist at Kleer and Membersy, Stacey brings over 7 years of expertise in B2B and healthcare content creation. Harnessing her experience she works to craft actionable resources for dental teams to help fuel their growth.
Get started, today.
Our experts will show you how our advanced, cloud-based membership plan platform—coupled with resources, tools and support from the experts at Kleer, can bring your practice phenomenal results.
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