EQUINE | Business
The Skeptic’s Guide
to Veterinary Wellness Plans
Here are straight-up answers to six questions you may be
asking yourself about bundled preventive-care-service plans.
By Tom McFerson, CPA, ABV
VETERINARY ECONOMICS
R
eviews from veterinarians are decidedly mixed
about wellness plans—those preventive-care-
service bundles for which clients pay a monthly
set fee. In the right veterinary practice with the correct
implementation, they can be a roaring success. In the
wrong situation they can land with a loud and costly
thud. And how do wellness plans impact the value and
salability of a veterinary practice anyway?
Thinking about wading into the wellness plan pool?
Consider these six burning questions.
1. Do wellness plans really improve cash
flow?
Once a veterinary practice has committed to wellness
plans, trained the team, educated clients, implemented
the framework and given the system a chance to ma-
ture, then the answer can be yes. One of wellness plans’
more appealing aspects is the potential for steady, reli-
able cash flow. There’s comfort to be taken from a large
chunk of practice revenue hitting your bank account at
the beginning of each month, quarter or year. And re-
member, steady cash flow means less risk, which trans-
lates into higher practice value.
• Volume 19 no 2 • June 2017 •
35