Selling Memberships
Membership Questions for Retiring Seniors
By now, I’m sure you have been asked by a patient if you have any recommendations for an insurance plan to sign up for. A large number of your patients continually lose their dental benefits for various reasons, and they want your trusted advice as to what is the best insurance plan to buy so that they can continue being patients at your office. These patients include retiring seniors and even a large number of younger patients that experience a change in their work situations. If you are a FFS office, it’s a nonstarter to recommend anything but your office’s membership plan. But even if you are in-network, you’ll find that it is likely a more affordable option for your patients to utilize your membership plan.
The truth of the matter is that even if you recommend an insurance plan that you are in-network with, your patients will pay a high premium and receive little in return. When they were provided insurance as part of their compensation package, they didn’t feel it in their wallet. But now, as self-paying individuals for that same insurance, they can spend $40-$60 monthly and receive only a $1,000 benefit, usually eaten up by their regular cleanings, exams, and X-rays. That can be on average $600 a year for a $1,000 benefit. By signing them up for your membership plan, they’ll receive all the preventative services they need without restrictions, denials, and all the worry of “is my insurance going to cover this?”