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Hi, everyone. This is Brian Zimmerman with the

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Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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Thank you so much for tuning in today.

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I'm joined today by Chelsea Pava, enterprise customer

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success manager groups at Clear and MemberC for

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a conversation focused on dental practice same store

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growth. Chelsea, Chelsea, thanks so much for being

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on the podcast today. Of course. It's great

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to be here. Thanks for having me.

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Of course. And and and to lay the

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groundwork here for the conversation to come, can

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you just share a bit more about your

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your professional background,

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Clear, and just, you know, give give our

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listeners some context as we move into the

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conversation here?

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Yeah. Of course. Like you said, I'm enterprise

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customer success manager at Clear and Membersy.

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So

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we are the all in one membership plan

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solution. We serve over 20,000 dentists across the

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US, and I personally support

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our large groups and DSOs

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in driving same store growth through these dental

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membership plans. My main focus

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is to form beneficial partnerships,

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leverage technology,

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strategic insights,

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and just improve operational efficiency,

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maximize bottom line impact.

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I work with executive teams across the board

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to make sure that the DSOs are operating

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at the highest level possible.

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Excellent.

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I appreciate you laying that out. And I

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wanna start with a with a high level

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question here just to, again, sort of give

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folks some context to work with. How would

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you really describe the concept of same store

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growth,

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and why is this concept particularly relevant to

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dental practices right now?

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I would say for dental teams, same store

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growth is,

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you know, the primary focus on maximizing efficiencies

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and cash flow across existing practice locations compared

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to the previous year. So

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looking at today versus last year, how are

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we doing? Rather than working to drive growth

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through acquisitions.

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And there's a lot of reasons why practices

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are making same store growth a priority.

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I think that the primary driver is inflation

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these days.

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If we look within, we have large opportunity

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rather than acquiring new, so I'm excited to

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get into that.

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Absolutely. And and when you see folks sort

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of undertake some of these same store growth

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initiatives, you know, really trying to drive drive

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that revenue, drive that growth

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without an acquisition. I guess, what are some

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common pitfalls or mistakes you see dental practices

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make when they're doing that work?

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I think it's easy to first prioritize new

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patient acquisition,

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but that's allocating money and time and resources

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and looking for fast results.

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But, you know, looking into research, it's only

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40% of new patients complete a second appointment.

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This is wasting marketing expenses.

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It's losing revenue each year. And it's not

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that you shouldn't prioritize new patients,

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but it becomes harder to forecast

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and and

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assess the long term ROI

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if systems aren't built to improve patient loyalty

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and retention from the start. So

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looking within

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instead of looking out for new,

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again, huge opportunity there,

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across the board.

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Yeah. And that's that's sort of easy to

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to conceptualize too. If you're getting distracted trying

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to bring in new patients, it's easy to

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to think that that might translate into you're

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not focusing as much on those patients as

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you do have in terms of, how you

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allocate resources. Am I am I reading that

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correctly?

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Exactly. We wanna increase loyalty. We want our

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patients to continue to come back. New is

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great, but how do we maximize the folks

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that we know? How do we build better

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relationships

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with the patients that are coming in? How

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do we get them to behave in a

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way that helps us with this same store

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growth?

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Yeah. And and digging in that into that

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how to then, Chelsea, what tools or strategies

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would you recommend

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to dental practices really striving to to to

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achieve that same store growth?

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Any specific case studies or success stories come

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to mind that really highlight this?

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Yeah. Of course. I would say a case

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study that comes to mind for me is,

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Pearl Street Dental Partners. This is a partner

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that, I've been working with for a long

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time.

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They looked inside,

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to manage patient relationships.

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Their team had set their sights on improving

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case acceptance,

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production, and retention, like we were saying, through

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membership plans.

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So by choosing Clear and member c,

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as a partner, they've generated over

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$2,000,000 in subscription revenue.

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That's

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not insurance. That is not reimbursements.

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That is dollars and cents directly back to

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the practices.

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It equated to a 150%

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increase in production,

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and this was only across 18 locations.

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So the opportunity is is huge. It's vast.

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I would say even on a smaller scale,

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a smaller group has the same opportunity.

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Cataloochee

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Dental Group, they're based in North Carolina.

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They have about 35,000

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patients. Their goal was very similar, improve coverage

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for patients,

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reduce the high cost of dealing with insurance,

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and drive revenue into the business.

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They have about 4 locations. I wanna say

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maybe 5 now.

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$400,000

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in subscription revenue. So,

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you know, the impact is huge

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in in looking at same store growth, and

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this was not new patients. This was looking

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at their current

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inventory of uninsured patients and maximizing that opportunity.

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And you mentioned there are a couple of

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ways that these these practices were thinking about

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success, you know, case acceptance,

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reducing costs.

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Can you say more about sort of the

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the metrics and benchmarks

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practice leaders should really pay attention to here

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when they're trying to to tell that success

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story to to measure it?

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Of course. I think it begins in looking

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at production per visit.

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You know, it's looking at retention. A specific

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benchmark where we measure success is a 75%

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retention rate on these uninsured patients.

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And if you have

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incomplete treatment plans,

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you're not gonna get to that retention rate.

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I think retention is a huge factor here.

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So anywhere between 65 to 75%

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is a really good,

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goal to aim for when when you're looking

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at something like this.

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I appreciate that. Let's let's zoom in now

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on sort of the role

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membership plans can play here in driving same

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store growth. Can can you share some of

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the key steps and considerations

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for really starting out or or getting a

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strategy like that off the ground? And what

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excites you about the future potential and possibilities

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for for this the membership plan strategy in

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particular?

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Of course. Yeah. You you know, you likely

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have a database of

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inactive and uninsured patients who are avoiding care

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and treatment due to lack of access to

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coverage. So the question to ask yourself is

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how you can start to maximize the value

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of these patients.

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Working to bridge the coverage gap is huge

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opportunity for

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dental teams. It not only ensures patients access

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to care, but fosters a level of loyalty

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and moves patients closer to your business.

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So looking at

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those metrics internally,

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looking at your uninsured patient base, making sure

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that you're looking at unscheduled treatment,

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likely they are out there, and it's an

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opportunity to jump on by using a membership

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plan

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as the catalyst to move that forward.

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You know, what excites me about this is

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there are millions

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of people that do not have dental insurance.

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A dental membership plan is the perfect way

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to

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give access to care to these patients,

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get people to agree to hygiene, to make

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sure that they are healthy, that they are

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loyal to your practice, and that is a

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bonus to your community

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as a dental practice.

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Well, Chelsea, I appreciate you coming on today.

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I think you've given our listeners a lot

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of, truly actionable insights and and really helped

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unpack this idea of same store growth and

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where folks can be effective here. Is there

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anything we didn't cover or any final thoughts,

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anything you'd like to reemphasize with our listeners

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before I let you go?

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I would say that, the only thing that

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I would close with here is, you know,

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whether you are a dentist with one location,

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multiple locations, or you're a DSO with many

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offices,

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now is the time to focus on the

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growth of your existing practice.

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With the help of a dental membership,

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you can easily increase your cash flow by

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focusing on

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maximizing the value of your existing patients.

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It's a solution that is cheaper. It's easier

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and more effective than a sole focus on

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acquisition.

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So

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A strong way to end the conversation. Thank

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you so much, Chelsea. Thanks for coming on

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the podcast. Thank you.

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I'd also like to thank CLEAR Membersey as

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well for sponsoring this episode. You can tune

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to more podcasts from Becker's Health Care by

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visiting our podcast page atbeckerspodcast.com.