Dental Coverage and Patient Mindset in a Post-COVID World

Please note: This post is brought to you by our friends at Kleer. It originally appeared on their website.

On June 16, 2020, Kleer released a new report “A New Reality: Dental Coverage and Patient Mindset in a Post-COVID World,” which explores a paradigm shift the dental industry will experience post-crisis, and how dentists can respond by creating membership plans to offer directly to their patients.

Dental coverage and patient mindset have dramatically changed due to the COVID-19 crisis. As of May 2020, U.S. jobless claims due to the COVID-19 crisis hit a record of over 38 million people—four times that of the 2008 Great Recession. Losses of jobs, salaries and employer-sponsored dental benefits significantly reduced the number of insured dental patients and put new pressure on cash-paying patients.

Prior to the crisis, 100 million U.S. adults were without dental benefits, and this will grow to over 130 million due to COVID-19 job losses. It is estimated that in our new reality, one out of every two patients will not have dental coverage, a significant shift for dental practices.

There is a substantial risk to your practice’s production by having more uncovered and price-sensitive patients. Statistics show that uninsured patients visit the dentist three times less often and accept less than half the treatment of insured patients. Although this seems like bad news, it presents a big opportunity for forward thinking dentists to offer better care to their uninsured patients through a subscription-based direct care model—and to break free from insurers while providing uninsured patients the care they want.

With a membership plan, dentists can liberate themselves from the costs and hassles of insurance middlemen, and increase patient loyalty, visits and treatment acceptance by making it easier for patients to get the simple, budget-friendly and comprehensive dental care they want.

The key areas of the white paper report include:

• What you need to know about your uninsured patients
• Direct care is better care—now is the time for dentists to reclaim control from insurers
• Why dental membership plans work
• Kleer case studies—data validates the ROI of Kleer’s membership plan model

The conclusion of the report is that now is the time to implement a dental membership plan. However, not all membership plans are created equal. A practice should carefully analyze their approach to implementing a membership plan, ensuring automation, scalability, support and expertise are at the forefront. Kleer is the membership plan proven to drive results for dental practices. Learn more by downloading the white paper.