Dental Plan Experts for Scotland

We take pride in adopting a very transparent fee structure and are the only major dental practice plan provider that publishes our monthly admin fee on our website. We have a three-tier structure for our admin fees, and the most you will ever pay is £1.36 per patient (including VAT and Global Dental A&E cover for patients).

Our admin fees are outlined here.

Additionally, there is a nominal annual licence fee, which is thoroughly explained to ensure complete transparency. Our fees not only provide substantial long-term savings but also deliver exceptional value compared to other major plan providers.

We are here to help and support you with getting your dental plan fees right, ensuring they are profitable to your practice and affordable and attractive for patients. We can guide you on how to structure a range of different plans to suit a variety of patients’ needs, and how to price these plans. However, there is complete flexibility and discretion in what your plans include and their price point.

Every client has access to one of our dedicated and highly experienced Business Development team, who provide the necessary tools, advice, training, and support to ensure you achieve your dental plan objectives.

Alongside our Business Development team, you will also have access to a highly responsive Client Services team, who are on hand to help with all aspects of dental plan administration. Whether it’s a patient query or help using our online client portal, you can expect efficient and thorough service from a team that genuinely cares about delivering first-class support.

We provide dental practice-branded marketing materials to help promote your plans, including promotional leaflets, posters, TV assets, and social media templates. We also offer further advice, tools, training, and tips to ensure you are best placed to market your plans effectively.

We charge a one-off set-up fee of £395 inc. VAT that covers:

• training from our Client Services team on the patient sign-up process and using our easy-to-use online client portal for all plan management, reporting and insights;
• team training from one of our Business Development team members to cover all aspects related to achieving your specific plan objectives, including but not limited to; communication tactics, the patient journey, understanding the Global Dental A&E Scheme benefit etc;
• the design of dental practice-branded promotional leaflets and posters;
• other optional marketing resources, such as waiting room TV assets and social media templates;
• comprehensive management of all steps involved in the Simple Switch process if you are switching from another plan provider;
• organising patient communication mailings as required.

Patients pay a one-off fee of £8 when they join one of your plans, collected with the patient’s first payment. This fee does not apply to patients transferring from another dental plan provider or to any plans specific to children. Your patient pays the fee, which is not a cost to your practice.

Our registration fee is lower than other major dental practice plan providers. In our experience, a nominal registration fee does not deter patients from joining a plan. It helps them commit to the plan and lessens the risk of patients cancelling shortly after joining.

Most dental practice plan providers require three months’ notice if a practice intends to move their plan management to another provider. Once notice is given, a communication is sent to patients to inform them of the changes. Thereafter, everything else is managed in the background. At the appropriate time, collection management switches to Patient Plan Direct, with no break in any cover for patients.

Historically, patient loss was a concern when switching dental plan providers, primarily due to the need to contact patients and ask them to effectively recommit to the new practice plan arrangements and complete a new Direct Debit mandate. With this process there was a fear of patient drop-off.

Since 2021, the revised ‘bulk change process‘, which we call Simple Switch, now manages the transfer of Direct Debits between providers in the background. Patients are informed of the change, but there is no action for them to take.

As a result of Simple Switch, we have found that the potential drop-off (if any) is no greater than the natural attrition seen month-to-month. In fact, in the longer term, many dental practices go on to grow their plan base further with our advice, support, and training.

No, they will be covered under your existing dental plan provider until the switch occurs and Patient Plan Direct assumes responsibility for administering your dental practice plan. There is no break in access to the A&E benefit associated with either plan provider and no break in the regular payment they make by Direct Debit.

To establish how much you could save by switching to Patient Plan Direct, we would conduct a cost savings analysis, examining your plan patient numbers and the administration fees you pay your existing dental practice plan provider.

Use our savings tool to assess the potential cost savings your dental practice could make.

We appreciate while cost savings are attractive, support and service are just as important. We will guide you through our service offering and ongoing support and can connect you with other clients who have made the switch to provide confidence in what to expect. We know this is especially important to dental practices looking to switch from their current provider due to declining customer service and client support.

Patients do not need to do anything. They will receive a letter clearly stating the timings of the switch and outlining all the relevant information related to your new dental practice plan arrangements with Patient Plan Direct, including introducing our Global Dental A&E Scheme. There is no call to action for them to take.

To determine if transitioning from NHS to private dentistry is the right choice for your dental practice, we’ll schedule a discovery meeting with one of our highly experienced Business Development team members. Whether you want to make a full dental practice or a clinician-led conversion, we will conduct a thorough viability analysis and financial forecasting exercise. We’ll explore and assess specific indicators and areas that are key to a successful transition. Additionally, we’ll delve into your long-term goals and objectives to better understand your vision.

Ultimately, we ensure you have a clear idea of what the change and process are likely to look like and will always let you know if, for any reason, the transition is not advisable.

We will organise a training session to ensure your team is fully prepared, trained, and engaged with the upcoming changes. The training will cover the rationale for the change unique to your dental practice and the potential patient questions or objections, equipping your team with effective responses.

When running a viability report for a practice in Scotland, we take all the following into account:

• The gross earnings for the clinician or practice seen from NHS delivery (with items of service) in the last 12 months
• Any private income generated from upgrades to treatment from patients registered under the NHS
• Any general practice allowance, rent rebates or other financial support seen from NHS Scotland
• Any other relevant income that may be specific to the NHS contract/practice that needs to be replaced as part of the conversion.

We support the practice/clinician in ensuring that patients receive notice of deregistration to ensure they fulfil the requirements of the NHS income.

As Scottish practices are only paid for what they deliver, it is easier to support partial conversions where practices may still wish to see children under the NHS. This can often be a useful middle ground for parents and optimises the dental plan uptake for adult patients.

We work with the practice to ensure that all income seen from the NHS, in its various forms, is accounted for in the initial viability assessments. We also support practices to ensure they fulfil any contractual requirements – such as notice of deregistration – to prevent any unnecessary delay/fallout to the conversion process.

In Scotland, while you are not required to serve notice to the NHS, you must give patients 12 weeks’ notice of deregistration and complete the necessary paperwork. This includes a GP200 form that is then sent to the NHS. The NHS may also wish to see a copy of your patient communication to ensure the dates in the letter tie in with the notice to deregister.