Is this sign costing you paying clients?

By Aimee St. Arnaud, Practice Owner

A long-time client rushes into your clinic carrying her dog, Rose. Even though you are fully booked, you take Rose in and diagnose pyometra. It’s the end of a very long day but you offer to do the surgery. The client takes one look at the “Payment Due When Services Rendered” sign and says, “I can’t afford that right now. We’ve been coming to you since Rose’s first puppy exam. There must be something you can do?”

When she fails to qualify for Care Credit, the only alternative you can offer is euthanasia. The client walks out of the clinic.

You don’t hear from her again until she posts on Facebook calling you out for refusing to treat her suffering dog just because she couldn’t come up with funds right then.

You don’t read the comments. You are well acquainted with the “money-hungry-vet” posts on social media. All the years of trust and goodwill of you fitting her in and offering to stay late to do the surgery went out the window because of a cash flow and financing gap.

It’s not just low-income pet owners

Does this sound familiar? As a partner in two practices myself, I hear all the time from my own team and practices who are seeing more existing clients who used to be able to pay for services now putting off routine treatments and refusing procedures for unexpected illnesses or injuries. Suddenly, it isn’t just low-income families asking you for help but established clients who previously accepted your treatment recommendations without question. We shouldn’t be surprised based on the percentages of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. According to a 2022 Bi-Partisan Policy Center study, “Americans are critically unprepared for financial emergencies,” with a third of respondents reporting difficulty coming up with $400 for an emergency expense.1

These are not people who cannot pay. These are people who cannot pay all at once.

Working with your clients

At Open Door, we believe you should be able to serve your clients without having to give discounts or free services. Our recommendations are based on what’s working in our own practices.

We think it’s time to take down that “Payment Due at Time of Service” sign, replacing it with wording about financing options to spread the cost of care over time. You may have tried payment plans in the past and felt they were a nightmare, but hear me out.

In Open Door practices, a quick discussion about goals for the visit is held to connect clients with payment options tailored to their individual needs. That may be third party financing like CareCredit®, Scratchpay® or Sunbit®; however, approval odds for these options may be limited for up to 40% of Americans. According to a 2019 Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection report, four in ten US adults have credit scores under 620, are unscorable, or credit invisible. This signals that only 60% of US adults may qualify for traditional financing options used by veterinary practices, as approval is dependent on credit scores. We offer VetBilling®, a program that allows us to decide if we can offer financing, how much to offer, and the repayment schedule, taking into account everything we know about the client. VetBilling® takes it from there, handling all the “nightmare” parts like collections and freeing us to focus on caring for our patients. For surgeries, dentals, and preventative care plans with a year’s worth of prevention, we offer payment over four months to increase compliance. When people aren’t focused solely on the stress of cost of the care, they can better see the value of services.

And here’s the best part — a 94% successful repayment rate! Our team authored a research paper in Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine where 6 years of veterinary payment plan data was analyzed.2

The time has come

The idea of externally managed pay-over-time plans for veterinary care is long overdue. We can finance our car, our house, and our phone. Millennials and Gen Z expect these options, and Millennials are the largest pet owning population.3 By the way, 70% of them are living paycheck to paycheck.4 I encourage you to give pay-over-time options a try. I’m convinced you’ll find more of your clients saying yes to your treatment recommendations and that your practice can see an increase in revenue. One practice in upstate NY saw a 30% increase in dental revenue when offering pay-over-time options. You will also feel less pressure to give deep discounts and free services that cut dangerously into your profit margin. Finally, I‘m convinced that your clinic morale will increase when your staff members feel empowered to offer solutions.

References

1. Orbe A, Snyderman R, Sprick E, and Akabas S. New BPC survey underscores Americans’ financial fragility, demand for workplace and policy innovation. Bipartisan Policy Center. Published April 12, 2022. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/new-bpc-survey-underscoresamericans-financial-fragility-demand-for-workplace-and-policyinnovation/

2. Cammisa HJ and Hill S. Payment options: An analysis of 6 years of payment plan data and potential implications for for-profit clinics, nonprofit veterinary providers, and funders to access to care initiatives. Front Vet Sci 2022:9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.895532

3. Megna M. Pet ownership statistics 2023. Forbes Advisor. Updated April 10, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/pet-insurance/petownership-statistics/

4. Books KJ. Nearly three-quarters US millennials live paycheck to paycheck, survey shows. CBS News. Published April 28, 2023. https:// www.cbsnews.com/news/millennials-paycheck-to-paycheck-financialstatus/

About the Author: Aimee St. Arnaud is a business partner in two full-service veterinary clinics (Community Pet Care Clinic in Ohio and Open Door Veterinary Care in North Carolina) that focus on removing barriers to care and increasing access to veterinary services while still maintaining a net positive revenue between 5-20%. She has created a non-profit mentorship training called Open Door Veterinary Collective for clinics that want to replicate their business model. This includes how to successfully use pay-over-time options, embracing spectrum of care, utilizing staff to their fullest skill levels in your schedule, and operational efficiencies. She would love to hear from readers and continue this important conversation. For those considering payment options, a limited number of free consultations are available. Aimee can be reached at aimee@opendoorveterinarycare.com.