Originally published by Vet Advantage Magazine.
Hesitant veterinarians may be surprised at what care plans could do for their clinical outcomes and bottom line.
Ron Nelson, executive vice president of Covetrus® Care Plans, has heard the myths before. Some veterinary practices have convinced themselves that care plans are too hard to bring on board, too difficult to manage, and would lead to more headaches and less revenue.
The reality, said the Covetrus leader, is just the opposite.
For small-to-midsize practices, care plans can increase visits, revenue, and treatment compliance, he said, citing several data points and research. “If you compare it within the same clinic among clients that don’t have a care plan versus those who are on a care plan, we see about a 3x increase of client spending on average. In fact, we’ve seen it go from about $500 on average to about $1,400 in annual spend per year,” said Nelson.
Treatment compliance improves too, as does the ability for doctors to offer more services, he said. “When you go into a veterinary office, you’ll usually have the doctors tell you what they recommend. A lot of times, it will be like choosing services a la carte based on what you can afford, because they’re very sensitive about talking price. But when you’re on a care plan, all those services and vaccines are included in your monthly payment. Veterinarians can say, ‘These are the costs, but you’re not going to pay anything today because it’s all included in your monthly fee.’ Pet owners are more likely in that case to do whatever the doctor recommends because then they don’t have to worry about a huge bill they are not prepared for or cannot afford.”
A care plan is usually based around two visits, said Nelson. The first visit is recommended early in the year, followed by a mid-year visit. “What we see on average is that a care plan drives extra visits to the practice because pet parents are more comfortable coming in early if they feel something may be wrong or should be looked at by the veterinarian,” he said. “They are coming in sooner, instead of waiting for it to be an emergency. That contributes to higher ancillary spending. We hear a lot from doctors who are concerned they’ll lose money on care plans with the examination. With care plans, their production pay actually goes up because there are more services being rendered to the pet. So, it drives up their production.”
Read the full article here.