Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Laurence Webb — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:14:41 GMT

[quote user="robloxley"]

[quote user="Jo Jones"]we will bring it to the attention of long standing clients who have been buying their flea and worm treatment from us anyway[/quote]

Aren't you just then selling the same amount of product at a lower margin?

[/quote]I agree - if the figures have been worked out correctly you should be promoting it to all clients but taking safeguards to make sure you aren't out of pocket from those who quit the scheme too early. You'd be better off concentrating on those who don't buy stuff from you or do it sporadically.

We run ours via standing order, so we aren't paying 10% commission to someone else to run it. The 10% saving is passed onto owners. We are potentially eating into our margins here, but most clients don't pick up their full quota of stuff. Most will pick up less than 11 months worth of flea treatment per year. Many pick up under 6 months and we even had one client buying Frontline on the internet to save money even though she was paying us as well!.

To stop early cancellations costing us money we take a few steps

1) Flea/worm treatment before their first payment is not covered. Before that they can purchase stuff at a discount.

2) Puppies and kittens are generally weighed monthly until 6 months old so they get the correct dose of flea/worm treatment, so are normally only dispensed 1 months treatment at a time. This also does a lot to bond clients to the practice.

3) Vaccinations are not covered until we have received 3 payments. if someone cancelled at this point we would have, at a minimum, covered the cost price of the vaccine plus flea/worm treatment. If someone needed a vaccine before this we would charge, but with a discount (currently £10)

4) If anyone cancels early we work out how much they have paid vs what they have received (at non-discounted price) and ask them to pay us any shortfall. It is generally a few pounds at most.

We do a starter package for puppies/kittens with primary vaccinations, microchip and a dose of Advocate or Frontline which is very good value anyway so clients pay this up front and we encourage them to join the scheme at that point. By the time they need their next dose of flea treatment they should have made a payment and it is then included.

I don't think we have extra good clients or an infallible scheme. If you are getting 10% of clients quitting leaving you out of pocket then perhaps you should rethink what they get as soon as they sign up

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:55:48 GMT

[quote user="Jo Jones"]On the other side of the coin, what do people do if animal is put to sleep when the owner has been paying their direct debits regularly but hasn't yet had enough treatment to reach the value of the payments they've made (really bad grammar, sorry!).[/quote]

I'd keep the money unless they made a fuss. They are signed up to 12 months worth of treatment.I have seriously thought of adding in £5 a year to the price and including euthanasia (at the surgery) and routine cremation. Would save any accusations of us having their money because they had just received a paid for service for free and it is a time I hate asking people for money.

We are in the infancy of the scheme but we get a lot joining up to spread the cost of the initial puppy vaccs and I think if they didn't have that option we'd have a lot less people on the scheme.

[quote user="robloxley"]Aren't you just then selling the same amount of product at a lower margin?[/quote]

I thought that - it's the people buying stuff elsewhere you really want. Also it means that they (hopefully) follow your recommendation regarding routine parasite treatment.

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Rob Loxley — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:47:01 GMT

[quote user="Jo Jones"]we will bring it to the attention of long standing clients who have been buying their flea and worm treatment from us anyway[/quote]

Aren't you just then selling the same amount of product at a lower margin?

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

anthony chadwick — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:28:45 GMT

we used to run it when I ran my own practice. We would get them to pay up front

If they joined at 1st vacc they got 20% off vaccs and 20% off any flea or wormers they bought.

At their 6 month check, everything from then on was free so it was a retrospective scheme.

I hope this helps

Best wishes

Anthony

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Jo Cobbett — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:10:51 GMT

We run something similar. Officially it is "by invitation only", so we will bring it to the attention of long standing clients who have been buying their flea and worm treatment from us anyway. I don't think we've refused anyone who wanted to join though, although we have one client on it who has had a history of bad debts, and therefore picks up her flea and worm treatment one month at a time so that she doesn't get too far ahead if we have problems with direct debits etc. I've never quite understood why she was allowed to join though!

Only animals over 12 months can join, as worming and vaccination requirement are higher in the first six months, so if we've seen the animal since its first vaccinations we usually have an idea of if they will be fairly reliable with payment by the time they sign up.

On the other side of the coin, what do people do if animal is put to sleep when the owner has been paying their direct debits regularly but hasn't yet had enough treatment to reach the value of the payments they've made (really bad grammar, sorry!). We tend to calculate the value of what they've had so far and refund them if they've paid for more than they receive.

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Glenn Hodgson — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:05:18 GMT

An interesting topic.

I guess we get more issues than some as we are a population dense area with the option of other vets to go to if you have defrauded one. We had one professional fraudster who went as far as quoting Scottish law to us referring to why he was not going to pay us! He did not have a job/income so written off, sad times.. Clearly been to vets prior to us and will now go to others..

We only give out one month of treatment at a time for the first 6 months unless the client is very bonded to the practice. We like to have the pups/kittens in for weight checks initially, this avoids insinuation doubt to unknown clients. For mature dogs/cats we say that this is just how it is, don't have to join if you don't like it.

I find it hard to offset the missed collections profits vs. "these types", I would rather spend them on Loxicom/euthatal for a pigeon with a sore wing or a bandage for a badger. One of my pet hates is for my good clients fees to subsidise my bad clients fees.

Virginia, I like the way you do it a lot. We will likely move to this if the problem becomes more prevalent.

In the mean time we are verbally marketing the plan slightly differently/ trying the easy fix!

regards

Glenn

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Virginia Campbell — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:20:07 GMT

We started the DD plans about 6 months ago but in a different format.

New pups and kittens get a package that includes 1st and 2nd vax, microchip, wormer and a flea treatment for a fixed price payable at time of 1st vax. Having bought this they are eligible for a free month of the adult DD-paid health plan that includes flea and worm tx in 3 month lots, plus next year's booster and a percentage off neutering, consults etc but they have to give us the signed DD forms. We have had quite good uptake of them signing up for the DD at the time of 2nd vax. Even if they don't sign up for the DD at 2nd vax, we get another bite at the cherry when they are in for a free adolescent health check with a nurse at 4-6 months.

We have signed lots of our existing clients directly onto the DD plan with their adult dogs and cats. The rule is that they must have been on the plan for 3 months before they can get their free booster, but we relax this for the good clients that we know won't bail out.

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Anthony Dennison — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 10:19:22 GMT

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]We run one, if you sign up at first vac you get the discount on the vac which is priced in (10%-15%) but still have to pay. The first booster will be then paid for. Same applies to product. Clients never receive anything until its been paid for

[/quote]

My mum's practice used to run one (unsure if they still do) along a similar vein - sign up at 1st vacc, discount at 2nd vacc, and then free from 1st booster. Seemed to work ok, but then I was younger and not aware of the business applications of these things

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Rob Loxley — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:27:10 GMT

Can you count these losses off against the clients who never come in for their full quota of flea and worming treatment?

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Holly Norman — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:49:35 GMT

I worked for a group of practices that operated a healthcare plan. Clients got 10% off anything they bought on the day they signed up and got nothing 'free' until the first direct debit + £5 handling fee had left their account. I think it was run by 'Practice Plan for Vets'. We only ever gave out three months worth of meds at a time- a three pack of advocate and a drontal dose. Holly

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Mark Holmes — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:42:44 GMT

We run one, if you sign up at first vac you get the discount on the vac which is priced in (10%-15%) but still have to pay. The first booster will be then paid for. Same applies to product. Clients never receive anything until its been paid for

Re: Preventative Health Care Plans - The Chancers

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:15:18 GMT

We offer health plans and this does worry me. We are a small rural practice where most people know each other. So far everyone has behaved impeccably, but I open the 'unpaid' report with trepidation.

Out terms and conditions state:

If you cancel at any time other than on an anniversary of joining the plan,
you will be required to pay the practice either the outstanding amount for
treatment received, or the monthly payments due until the anniversary of
your plan, whichever is lower.

So we would bill the client for the full cost, and chase ~£160. If it is a new client joining at the practice we ask them for a debit card and copy the DD details from there. It goes some way to check identity. I have toyed with asking new clients for proof of ID, but haven't done so as yet.

We will only give 2 months MAX treatment anyway to save them disappearing with a years worth of Frontline.

Maybe charge their credit card and refund once the first payment has cleared. Credit checking clients is fraught with lots of financial hoops.