An Alternative to Insurance, a Kleer® Membership Plan Is a “Win-Win” for Dentists and Patients
Dave Monahan, founder and CEO of Kleer®, saw a solution to a problem plaguing the dental industry: dental insurance. After beginning his career in the engineering sector and then transitioning to the medical field, he one day found himself engaged in a conversation with a practicing dentist about the struggle clinicians have with low reimbursements, collection hassles, and red tape from dental insurance. "I concluded that it was almost impossible to make any real money from insurance and that dental insurers were dictating how dentists practice medicine," he says. This was when he decided to better understand and potentially solve the problem.
To better comprehend the landscape, Monahan hired two market research firms and talked to many dentists and patients, as well as CEOs of companies with and without dental insurance. He learned that patients who had dental insurance were generally confused about their benefits and restrictions, and patients who didn't have insurance wanted coverage that provided access to affordable care. "Learning this, I decided the best way to meet the needs of dentists and patients was to cut out the middle man," he states.
Membership plans from Kleer are designed by the dental practice and offered directly to its patients, without an insurance company dictating treatment protocols, terms, or exclusions. This enables clinicians to design a treatment plan that is most beneficial to their patients and for patients to purchase simple and affordable coverage directly from their dentists.
While the idea of membership plans is not new, Monahan developed Kleer in a way to set it apart from other similar types of plans. "We've made membership plans more user-friendly for both the clinician and the patient," he asserts. "Dentists can customize their plans however they want, including treatment protocol, subscriptions, office fees, and so on, and it takes less than 15 minutes to set up." Patients can sign up for the membership plan from any device in 1 to 2 minutes and have access to a member portal where they can review their benefits, add family members, manage payments, and print a membership card.
The company prides itself on offering support to its customers, which Monahan calls "The Kleer Advantage." "We're not just software," he states, explaining that when a practice joins Kleer it receives a welcome kit that includes everything needed to market its new plan, including tent cards, brochures for patients, posters, and buttons.
"We also provide an upfront consultation with one of our Kleer Success Managers, who can do a fee consult, and help the practice design a plan customized to its unique patient and practice needs," he says. Once the plan is launched, practices have access to the Kleer Practice Portal for tracking and managing members and payments, customer support, and additional marketing materials, including website and social media ads.
Monahan affirms that Kleer can be utilized in all types of practices, including dental support organizations. "Kleer works for any practice that wants to cut out the middle man and provide a care plan that patients will value," he says.
For clinicians interested in incorporating Kleer into their practice, Monahan suggests the best way to get started is by going to kleer.com. "On our website, prospective customers can access resources, find out more details, and even book a live, online demo," he says, adding that one of the company's strengths is assisting clients with integration of the program. "Our Kleer Success Managers help the dental practice throughout the implementation process, which is set up to enable practices to succeed with the plan," he confirms.
Monahan believes that through the use of the Kleer membership platform, clinicians can become more empowered to treat patients the way they feel is most appropriate. "Kleer lets dentists practice oral medicine with passion and purpose and allows patients to come in for treatment more frequently," he exclaims. With Kleer, Monahan insists, everyone wins.
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