Why Every Dental Practice Should Have a Self-Managed Membership Plan in Open Dental

For years, dental practices have relied on PPOs to keep their schedules full.

But 2025 is proving what many of us already felt coming: Patients want care. They don’t necessarily want insurance.

More practices are turning to in-house membership plans - not discount gimmicks, but well-structured, legally compliant, practice-controlled savings plans, because they create something PPOs never could: Freedom, loyalty, and predictable revenue.

And the best part?

You can manage the entire thing inside Open Dental without paying third-party subscription fees.

Let’s break down why every practice should have a membership plan, and how to build, use, and track it inside your software.

1. Membership Plans Attract Patients Who Want Dental Care, Not PPO Restrictions

Patients without insurance often feel stuck between:

• Delaying care

• Paying out of pocket

• Or signing up for employer plans with limited benefits

When you offer your own membership plan, you give them:

• Transparent pricing

• Predictable annual costs

• Discounted fees they can trust

• A reason to return twice a year

• A well-built plan increases:

• New patient flow

• Hygiene retention

• Treatment acceptance

• Long-term loyalty

Patients love it because it feels simple. Teams love it because it removes insurance confusion. Doctors love it because it grows revenue without shrinking fees.

2. Offer Your Discount Plan to Local Businesses, It’s a Win for Everyone

You don’t need Delta or MetLife to bring you patients. Your local employers can do that for you.

Every community has:

• Restaurants

• Barber shops

• Gyms

• Small manufacturers

• Coffee shops

• Nonprofits

• Family-owned retail

Most of them cannot afford traditional dental insurance for their team, but they can afford to offer your in-house dental plan as an employee benefit.

This creates:

• A new patient pipeline

• Stable recurring revenue

• Increased community visibility

• Loyal family accounts

And it positions your practice as a community partner, not just another dentistry commodity.

3. You Can Build & Manage Your Membership Plan Directly Inside Open Dental

Open Dental has a built-in Discount Plan system that makes it incredibly easy to structure, assign, track, and manage your membership plans, without paying anyone else to do it.

Here’s the high-level setup process, grounded in your SOPs:

Step 1: Create the Adjustment Type & Fee Schedule

Per your documented process:

• Create an adjustment type specifically for your plan

• Build a fee schedule with your discounted fees

Open Dental will automatically apply the discount by comparing your UCR fees with the plan fee schedule.

Step 2: Create the Discount Plan in Open Dental

In Lists > Discount Plans, you’ll set:

• Plan name

• Fee schedule

• Adjustment type

• Annual max or frequency limits (optional)

• Internal notes

• Save, and your plan is ready to assign.

Step 3: Add the Plan to a Patient Account

Inside the Family Module, assign the plan and add an expiration date.

Step 4: Charge for the Plan & Collect Payment

Use your designated discount plan code and collect 100% up front.

Most offices price their plans to cover preventive care at a discount while supporting increased restorative acceptance.

4. How to Use Your Discount Plan in Real Life

Once assigned, Open Dental automatically:

• Applies the discounted fees

• Shows the discount in the ledger

• Keeps the accounting clean

If a patient buys the plan after their appointment, you can manually apply adjustments to reflect the membership rate. Practices love this because it reduces friction and keeps the ledger clean.

5. How to Track Memberships (So They Actually Drive Revenue)

Open Dental gives you everything you need to monitor your plan’s health.

Your SOPs recommend you:

• Run the Discount Plans Report regularly

• See:

• Who’s enrolled

• Who’s due for renewal

• Who’s using benefits

• Monitor Daily Adjustments

• Verify discounts are applied correctly and consistently.

• Add Discount Plan Information to Appointment Views

• This is so the whole team can prepare for conversations.

• Allocate Production Fairly in Provider-Based Offices

Your SOP outlines exactly how to reassign production using subtraction and positive adjustments for accurate reporting.

This makes membership plans compatible with:

• Associate compensation

• Hygiene production tracking

• Provider bonuses

Nothing gets inflated or skewed.

6. Why Self-Managed Memberships Outperform Third-Party Plans

Third-party membership platforms often:

• Charge monthly fees

• Take a percentage of revenue

• Require you to use their system outside Open Dental

• Limit customization

• Make cancellation or renewal complicated

When you manage your plan inside Open Dental, you:

• Own the system

• Keep 100% of the revenue

• Customize fees and rules

• Track adjustments correctly

• Avoid external reporting errors

• Reduce friction for your team

Your plan becomes a true asset, not another subscription.

7. Membership Plans Build Trust, And Trust Drives Treatment Acceptance

When patients feel:

• Clear

• In control

• Supported

• Respected

• Financially safe

They say yes to treatment faster and more confidently.

Membership plans do that by:

• Eliminating insurance confusion

• Providing transparent pricing

• Offering predictable annual costs

• Encouraging preventive care

• Strengthening the patient–practice relationship

This is how practices move from reactive scheduling to stable, predictable, recurring revenue.

Final Thought

Every dental practice, regardless of size, benefits from having a well-structured, self-managed membership plan.

It attracts uninsured patients. It engages local businesses. It increases treatment acceptance. It stabilizes cash flow.

And inside Open Dental, it’s easier to manage than most practices realize.

If you want help:

• Designing your membership plan

• Setting it up in Open Dental

• Building your workflows

• Training your team

• Or turning your plan into a sustainable revenue stream

SKF can help you build a system your team actually understands and your patients actually value.

Because a good membership plan isn’t just a discount, it’s a trust-building, relationship-strengthening, practice-growing strategy.