Pet Wellness Plans: The Real ROI of Preventive Care
Seeing the benefits of enhanced pet wellness in veterinary practice necessitates consistency in preventive care recommendations and protocols. Practices must also support pet owners in prioritizing their pet’s well-being through education about the value of care and by offering affordable ways to pay.
Preventive care plans, also called veterinary wellness plans, can provide the structure clinics need to implement and achieve their routine care goals. Care plans improve affordability for clients and ensure a monthly, consistent revenue stream for the practice.
What are preventive care plans?
Care plans are service bundles that group routine veterinary services into a discounted annual package. Instead of paying for each service separately, pet owners contribute a monthly payment amount that spreads the cost of annual services over 12 months. Plans are customizable and may include:
- Vaccinations
- Blood work
- Dental care
- Deworming
- Routine check-ups
- Spaying or neutering
- Flea, tick, and heartworm prevention
Veterinary hospitals implementing preventive care plans can partner with a provider or platform that handles administration and billing for them; many integrate directly with modern, cloud-based veterinary practice management software. These clinics are likely to see a return on investment that extends beyond revenue and profits to multiple areas of operations. Here are six examples of the true preventive care ROI in practice.
1. Better compliance and healthier pets
Routine care services included in pet wellness plans, including vaccinations, dental care, and early detection diagnostic testing, are foundational for pet health and wellness. Clients opting into a preventive care plan with a predictable monthly payment want to use the services they pay for.
When pets come in for preventive services, veterinarians can detect and address health issues sooner, keeping their patient base healthier overall. Plus, these visits build long-term relationships founded on trust, so clients are more likely to comply with treatment plans and recommendations in the future.
2. Stronger client loyalty
Clients may see pet wellness and preventive care plans as an acknowledgement that the veterinary clinic understands the cost pressures most pet owners face and wants to make it easier and more affordable to provide the best care to their pets.
Offering plans shows your commitment to pet health and provides pet parents with peace of mind. Additionally, when wellness plans include discounts on sick visits and other services, enrolled families are more likely to schedule visits to address those issues.
3. Stable revenue
Direct evidence of preventive care ROI lies in a clinic’s financial stability. The monthly income veterinary practices receive from preventive care plans can limit the impact of seasonal lulls and spikes. Stable revenue allows practice leaders the predictability they need to invest in staff hiring and training, new equipment, or added services, supporting better overall practice management.
4. Easier financial conversations
Discussing pricing for veterinary services can be uncomfortable for clients and the veterinary team. With a pet wellness plan in place, many of those conversations shift from “What can you afford to do today?” to “Here’s what your plan already covers.”
Although preventive care plans don’t eliminate the need for transparent financial discussions during appointments, they can reduce the anxiety some team members feel when approaching these conversations and help shift the client's focus from cost to value.
5. Improved access to care
Spreading annual care costs out into monthly payments makes care more affordable for pet families with limited resources. When you live paycheck-to-paycheck, it’s much easier to budget for a consistent monthly expense than a larger, less predictable annual cost.
Pet wellness plans are one flexible payment option that can help open the door to consistent care for more pets. Additionally, they pair well with pet insurance, which helps cover pet owner costs outside of typical routine services.
6. Streamlined scheduling and workflow
Pets enrolled in wellness plans visit on a predictable schedule, which helps spread routine visits out throughout the year, allowing practices to better anticipate staff, inventory, and other resource needs. Staff can develop streamlined workflows when they can predict the general flow of the day and the proportion of wellness to sick visits they are likely to encounter.
Preventive care progress
Veterinary hospitals cannot measure the true ROI of preventive care plans with a single data point or metric. Instead, care plans have a cumulative, long-term impact on patient health, client satisfaction, and veterinary team efficiency. Pet wellness plans align patient needs, client expectations, and practice goals in a way that strengthens the entire veterinary care ecosystem.
