Kleer

Customizable membership plans benefit patients and practices

Alice Bassford, DMD, MAGD

I started my career working for 10 years as a dentist in the army, and then I worked for 5 years with a military prosthodontist. Eventually, I wanted to own my own practice, so I bought a previously established one. Since taking over the practice, I have updated many of our services, including digital x-ray imaging, CAD/CAM, and in-house milling.

As the years progressed and the insurance industry changed, I also decided to update our reimbursement offerings. I wanted to find ways to help younger patients who didn't have any insurance and older patients who had retired.

I started doing research into membership plans and discovered that there are many different options available. Membership plans are dental care plans offered by dentists directly to their patients. Patients pay a monthly or annual subscription directly to their dentist, and in return, they receive preventive care and discounts on all other procedures. After getting more information about a few different plans, I chose Kleer. In my opinion, the name Kleer is a perfect fit. Kleer's membership plan made everything very easy to understand for my staff, my patients, and me. Since implementing the Kleer membership plan in 2017, we've had a lot of success, and I'm expecting to add more patients to the plan as 2018 progresses.

Other membership plans that I explored had additional monthly fees that I didn't want to deal with and hidden add-ons that seemed frustrating. Kleer is very straightforward and transparent with all of their fees. I think it's important for patients to be able to see a breakdown of the fees for their visits and their procedures so there are no surprises. In addition, Kleer's customer service is extremely quick with their assistance and easy to work with.

I am tremendously happy with the Kleer membership plan, and my patients think it's really great as well. I believe that it's helping to build loyalty between us. If I'm going to reduce my fee, I'd rather do it to benefit my patients than to benefit an insurance company. The Kleer membership plan is more affordable and easier to use than a lot of insurance plans because there is no maximum spending limit, there are no restrictions on the timing of visits, and there are no exceptions to what the plan covers. At first, some patients believe that it's too good to be true, but they understand when they see the numbers. In the future, I am hoping to expand my use of Kleer to include supplemental plans for patients with maxed-out insurance or insurance that doesn't cover procedures such as implants or mouth guards. I would also like to expand my membership plan to create a network with the specialists that we use.

I hope that other dentists will learn how easy the Kleer membership plan is to implement and create one to benefit their practice and their patients.

Key Takeaways

1. Kleer enables dentists to easily design and manage their own membership plans and offer them directly to their patients

2. Kleer allows dentists to set their own subscription prices, create their own fee schedules, invite patients, and modify their plans to suit their practices' needs

3. Kleer-powered membership plans are a fit for active, uninsured patients; patients on the verge of retiring; and dormant, uninsured patients

4. Getting uninsured patients on a membership plan will increase patient treatment acceptance as well as practice revenue

About the Author

Alice Bassford, DMD, MAGD
Private Practice
Silver Spring, Maryland

Manufacturer Information
Kleer
kleer.com
844-965-5337