Simple, Affordable Dental Coverage: It’s What Retiring Boomers Need
With ten thousand baby boomers retiring every day, some of your most loyal patients may be losing the dental coverage they had through their employers. These patients have been coming to your practice for years, and suddenly they’re questioning their ability to continue taking care of their oral health without regular paychecks and benefits to offset the cost.
Medicare only covers catastrophic dental care, leaving retirees with a coverage gap to fill by paying out-of-pocket or by purchasing expensive and confusing dental insurance or dental discount plans to cover regular care. To better serve the retiring boomer population, forward-thinking dental practices across the country are implementing subscription-based membership plans that promote simple, affordable direct care—without the hassle of the insurance middleman.
Retired Boomers are Challenged to Fill a Coverage Gap
As they transition to retirement, boomers are challenged to find a simple and affordable way to access the dental care they need. Most will research which dental benefits are included with Medicare, only to learn that it doesn’t provide coverage for regular care like checkups, cleanings, fillings, crowns, implants, dentures or tooth extractions. In fact, Medicare will only cover certain dental services during hospitalization. This leaves retired boomers with a gap to fill by paying out-of-pocket or buying expensive dental insurance plans or questionable dental discount plans.
Dental insurance and dental discount plans are complicated and expensive. Your patients don’t want to deal with the hassles of waiting periods, exclusions for preexisting conditions, restrictive annual maximums, and complex terms that are very difficult to understand. The cost and complexity of these plans just isn’t practical for boomers. Because this retiring generation is adjusting to a fixed income, affordable coverage with transparent terms and pricing is critical.
Dental Membership Plans are the Solution
Dental practices across the country are addressing the needs of their retiring patients by implementing subscription-based membership plans. With a membership plan, your patients won’t feel cornered into making the impossible decision between going without coverage or paying too much for coverage they don’t understand. A membership plan provides your patients with access to the simple, affordable care they need.
Here’s how it works: Just like other subscription-based plans like Netflix and Amazon Prime, patients pay a monthly or annual subscription directly to your practice. In return, your practice covers preventive care and offers discounts on other procedures. You are 100% in control of the subscription price, procedure fees and plan options—so, you can design and price your practice’s membership plan based on the specific needs of your office and patients.
Membership plans are built to be simple, convenient and transparent. And, without waiting periods for benefits to start, your retired patients can tap into membership plan benefits immediately upon losing employer-sponsored coverage. You are enabling your patients to get the coverage they need—when they need it. Plus, they can better budget for their care and commit to long-term care at your practice. Offering this benefit is a surefire way to deepen the trust your boomer patients have in your practice, and subsequently improve patient loyalty and increase treatment acceptance.
One Dental Practice’s Experience in Serving Boomer Patients
ASE Dental, a practice located in Silver Spring, Maryland, implemented a dental membership plan to better serve their uninsured patient base, which included a growing number of retiring boomers. Dr. Alice Bassford, DMD, stated, “In addition to uninsured patients, we treat a high percentage of patients nearing retirement and transitioning away from employer-sponsored dental care. We needed a new way to keep these high-risk patients engaged and healthy.”
The practice partnered with Kleer, the leading solution for dental membership plans. Kleer made it easy for ASE Dental’s team to design, launch, manage and grow their membership plan. To date, the practice has enrolled over 220 members to their plan and boasts a 94% renewal rate, which shows that patients truly value the plan. Direct care is better care—and as a result of their membership plan, ASE Dental has happier and healthier boomer patients today.
Read the full case study “ASE Dental: Innovative Membership Plan Engages Uninsured, Dormant and Baby Boomer Patients.”
